Supposed To Be
by ChelsM3-ZKFTW
Summary: This is a chapter of a story that I've been working on for Zutara. It's going to be like the cartoon with a Zutara spin on it.
1. Chapter 1

The Beginning

The snow fell gently blanketing the south pole in layers. Sokka watched in awe like he did every time the snow came down slowly and calmly. "Katara, if you don't get going, we're not going to make it home in time. And, then I'm gonna have to listen to you about how we should've been home when Gran Gran gets upset." he yelled over his shoulder at his sister. He hated when she did this. She was constantly complaining about how they were always late. But when it came down to it. She was, generally, the cause for it all.

"I'm coming, Sokka, just give me some time, okay?: Katara grabbed her pouch and ran out from behind the iceberg where she was getting her bearings together. She lightly touched her throat out of habit, checking for her mother's necklace.

The only thing she had of her moms. The only thing she had that made her mom feel real and alive. She wanted her mom back so much so that at times the pain of it all was too much for her to handle. But she knew she had to be strong for Sokka. So she tried to never let it faze her too much when he was around.

Trying to lighten her mood, she ran up behind him and threw a snow ball at the back of his head. It made contact with a thud and slush everywhere. Hahah.

He turned around and in his eyes was a desire. A desire to retaliate. And retaliate he did. But he missed on several accounts. Katara ran left and right but it didn't matter, even if she stood still, he'd miss then too. Not that he had bad aim or anything. No it wasn't that at all, it was because all she had to do was bend the water from the snow to her favor. He would never win and he knew it. But still the snowballs continued to fly.

She finally grew bored. She stopped the snow from hurtling toward her face. Instead they hit the iceberg she was behind. They hit it hard. Too hard.

It cracked.

She froze.

Sokka came closer to her.

It burst open.

Light fled out in blinding rays.

The iceberg exploded.

Katara and Sokka were forced off they're feet and back, falling through the sky only to collide with the snow bank.

Katara lifted her head up. From the iceberg came a creature of monstrous proportions and a child no older than 12. He had no hair at all. Instead a beautifully made blue arrowed graced his head. The sign of the air nomads. Katara's eyes wandered the rest of his body. The tattooed arrows also laid on both arms and ran down to his hands. The same went for his legs and feet. She couldn't see anything else. His body was covered in orange and yellow clothing.

Katara felt a pull toward him, like she knew that their lives were going to be intertwined and they would need one another so much. She was lost in his grey eyes. Like the ocean during a storm. But they weren't angry. No not at all, just confused. Like he needed to be found and here she was. She and Sokka found him. He looked like he was in real need of a family and she felt that now, because they had broken him from his ice prison, that by default he was now theirs

She kneeled down beside him. He watched her movements intensely. "Hi, my name is Katara. And this is my brother Sokka. We're from the Southern Water Tribe."

"I'm Aang of the Southern Air Temple. Oh and I love penguin sledding. Wanna come?" the confusion was gone now replaced by joy. Pure, whole. She couldn't say no.

But that didn't mean Sokka couldn't. "Uh, yeah, no, I don't think so Katara. We need to get back to the village before Gran Gran thinks something is wrong." he grabbed Katara's hand and pulled her to her feet. But she pulled herself away from him and went back to Aang and helped him up.

"Wait, hang on a second? You said you were from the Air Temple? Does that mean you're an air bender? Do you know the Avatar?" Katara's eyes filled with something she'd always had. Hope.

"Yes I'm an Airbender. No I uh don't know the Avatar. Sorry." Aang looked away unable to meet her eyes.

"Oh, well, that's okay I guess. Come on, Aang, you can come back to the village with us." Aang's face lit up and his cheeks turned a deep color of embarrassment.

"Uh, yeah sure, that'd be, uh, that'd be really great. But we can take Appa, my sky bison, instead." they all piled inside ready to fly, only to be let down when Appa fell into the water. "Yip, yip, Appa." nothing. "Come on, boy." nothing. "Okay, maybe we'll walk." The three children trekked through the snow and back to where the water tribe kids lived.

§¨©ª

"Gran Gran, we're back. And we brought someone with us. I hope you don't mind." Katara pulled Aang through the hut where her grandmother lived. She swept her eyes over the small interior but couldn't find her anywhere. She ran back outside where her eyes clashed with Sokka's. He didn't know where she was either. They searched for her some more and eventually found her sitting by a small pond of water. Lately she seemed to be getting more and more distant. "Gran Gran, I want you to meet someone." she reached behind her and pulled Aang up front and center. "This is Aang. We found him in …uh… well we found him."

Gran Gran looked over her shoulder at the stranger. He was a young thing with no hair and eyes grey as steel. Why had Katara brought this child here, she wandered. She reached her hand out to him and took his in hers. "Hello, child, I am Kanna, the eldest who resides here. What might we help you with?"

She had a bad feeling about this boy, but she would keep her opinions to herself. At least for now she would.

"I actually don't know what I need right now. I would just like to get myself together and relax. But uh what I really want to do is look around if that's okay?" Aang looked away bashfully, he wanted to tell them, he really did, but he just couldn't. Not yet.

"Well, you are welcome to stay as long as you want or need to. Katara, I'm sure, will help you in anyway you need." Kanna's smile seemed genuine, but Aang couldn't help but feel like she was pretending her kindness toward him.

Aang, Katara and Sokka left the pond and walked to the other side of the village. As they came closer the cliff slide where a group of penguins preside, Sokka broke off from them, "I'm gonna go check on the soldiers-in-training. See ya." he waved a goodbye and left..

Aang and Katara continued on. "I haven't done this in so long. I don't even think I remember how." she blushed slightly. "So, I um, have a question for you. Do you think you could teach me Water Bending?"

He looked over at her, "Katara, I would love to, but I'm not a Waterbender. Don't you have a master here to show you?"

She turned away in shame, "No, you're looking at the only Waterbender in the whole Southern Water Tribe."

"Really? I had no idea, obviously. What about in the Northern Tribe?"

"I'm sure there is, but I can't exactly get there easily or without feeling bad for leaving." she twisted her fingers in anxiety.

"Well, I'll take you."

"What? You would do that?" Katara's face lit up, only to fall again. "Even if you did do it, I couldn't ever leave."

"Let's not think about this right now, okay?"

"Yeah, of course. So I haven't done any of this since I was younger. I don't think I could do it." she quickly changed subjects to less pressing matters.

"It's okay, all it takes is one try then it will all come back to you." Aang grabbed her hand and

pulled her over the cliff.

Three things happened all at once. One: she felt her face flaming. Two: she didn't fall over the cliff. Oh no, she was flying over it. Three: she realized something big was going to happen. All because of Aang.

"Aang, I don't know if I can do this." but Katara didn't have a choice. Aang lightly tossed her onto a penguin's back then jumped on one himself. Before Katara had a chance to clamber off or collect herself for the ride, the penguins took off at high speeds taking turns sharp and fast curve after curve seemed to be going by faster than the last.

Katara finally relaxed herself enough so she could feel the air move around her like she was a bender and the air her element. She urged her penguin to go faster trying to beat Aang down the hill. Unfortunately, she was not successful. It seemed that no matter how fast she went or how hard the wind seemed to move around her she was never as fast as Aang.

By the time they had made it down the hill she was ecstatic and bursting with laughter. She hadn't laughed like that in years nor had she had so much fun. "Aang, that was amazing, thank you." she hugged him briefly before retreating back as her face grew warm.

"No problem, Katara. I had fun too," his eyes glanced past her and fell on a ship. Not just any ship. A Fire Nation ship. "Hey, what's that over there?"

Katara's eyes followed the direction his finger was pointing, it led to one of the fire nation ships. It was held up on wave of ice, like a prized trophy, made by the last water benders of the tribe back when her grandmother was her age. She had heard the stories countless times and loved it more each time it was told.

"Oh, that's one of the ships from the first raids by the Fire Nation. They tried several times to destroy our village." Katara's eyes clouded over. But Aang didn't understand, why would the Fire Nation be doing that?

"Uh, Katara, are you sure you have that right? Last time I remember the nations lived together peacefully." Aang was not going to like where all this was heading.

"We've all been at war with the Fire Nation for almost 100 years now. Does that mean you were in that ice cube for a hundred years?"

"I can't believe this." Aang grabbed Katara's hand and leaped toward the ship. Up close the ship was menacing and evil. Nothing like the fire nation things he was used to. He started to walk toward it.

Katara stopped him, "Aang, we aren't allowed in there. There could be traps."

He looked back at her, "if you want to be a bender, then you have to let go of fear."

Aang disappeared into the ship, it took Katara less than a second to follow right behind him. Aang was in already and she noticed his curiosity for everything. Just wanting to touch everything he could.

"Aang, do you know anything about the war or the evils of the fire nation?" Katara came up behind Aang and put her hand on his shoulder.

"No, I don't. Before I was trapped I had friends in all nations. Including the fire nation. I never thought that this would happen." he shook off Katara's hand and looked away.

"Well, maybe we should leave, before something happens." Katara's voice seemed to be getting heavy with worry.

Aang turned around and tripped over something. At first it didn't seem like anything, but it turned out to be a booby trap. He should've listen to Katara. Now something bad was gonna happen. And she was gonna get hurt. Just what he needed.

"Yeah, alright, let's go." he didn't want to wait for her to climb out. He snatched her off her feet and jumped by bounds out the ship. He was out of the ship faster than Katara could have thought possible.

Just as their feet hit the snow bank a huge red flare shot through the sky and landed in places unknown.

§¨©ª

Zuko pushed hard and moved fast. His exercises were getting easier and easier every time he did them and it frustrated him. So he did it all harder and faster, trying to make more of a challenge.

His uncle, who was forever thinking he was wise and knew it all, thought that he needed to know how to relax, breathe and calm down. Zuko disagreed.

To him, it wasn't a matter of relaxing, breathing or calming down. It was more. To him this was all a punishment. Punishment for losing, for being a bad son, for his stupidity. And that above all else made him the most angry, the fact that his father would challenge a 13 year old child was pathetic, but that wasn't the issue at hand. The issue was in fact his honor. And in order for him to redeem that he had to capture the Avatar.

Once he had that air bending, cowardly, old man he'd be home free. Literally. Zuko could feel the joy that would inflate his chest. He would finally be where he belonged. It'd be the greatest day of his life. Going back to his home and his father…even his…sister. But he had to find the Avatar before any of that was possible.

Zuko looked up in time to see his uncle walking toward him, "Prince Zuko, we have seen a flare coming from the Southern Water Tribe. We're not sure what it is, what would you like to do?"

He didn't have to think about this for very long. If there was any hope any at all that this could be the Avatar, he'd take it and consequences. "Set a course for the light. It could be him."

He stood up from his lower level stance and looked out over the ship. This was it. His honor was going to be restored.

§¨©ª

Aang and Katara ran back to village as fast as Aang's air bending could take him. "I knew it! You signaled the fire nation, you led them right to us!" Sokka's spittle could be seen from the few feet away that they were. And his shouting could be heard from further.

"Sokka, calmed down! It was just an accident. Aang didn't mean to." she stood in front of Aang to shield him from her brother's rant.

"It doesn't matter. He needs to leave, now." Sokka was angry, obviously, but that didn't meant he had to be a pig headed dunce, who just didn't think clearly.

"Sokka, you're being irrational. Gran Gran, tell him." Katara waited silently for her grandmother to back her up in her time of need. She never came.

"I think Sokka's right, Katara, we can't trust this child, we don't know where he came from or what he's doing in this tribe. He must leave." her face said she wasn't budging. Katara believed it.

"Fine, then I'm going with him. He's gonna take me to a master in the Northern Tribe." Katara stormed off to Appa, the flying sky bison they had yet to see fly.

"Katara, you don't really mean that. Are you saying you'd rather go with a stranger than stay here and help defend your tribe?' Sokka's face was full of shock and dismay.

Aang walked up beside Katara, "I think I'm gonna go now." he moved away from her and climbed on Appa. "Thank you, everyone, for letting me stay here. Have a good life." with that final goodbye Aang was gone, forever. Katara would miss him.

"Katara, come on dear, it was for the best." Gran Gran came up and grabbed hold of her arms.

Katara ripped away from the old woman. "Are you happy now? There goes my one and only chance at becoming a water bender. But now, I have to stay here and do nothing with my life. Are you happy?" she stormed off leaving her grandmother crying alone.

§¨©ª

"Alright, men, the fire nation is coming for us, we need to ready ourselves and prepare for battle." Sokka looked over his soldiers. No, that wasn't exactly the right word for them. They were more like… well, children. And they looked scared, but if they wanted to be warriors then they would just have to deal with it all. Whether that meant dying or fighting they would have to do it all and grow up sometime and that time was now.

Some of the children whined until it was too much for Sokka. He finally dismissed them all and suited up himself. A noise came from the outside. The fire nation had arrived. He left the hut and took his stance on the snow bank.

He watched in silence as the ship came closer and closer and closer still. Was it ever gonna stop? He thought to himself.

§¨©ª

Katara saw the ship. Saw her brother. Saw children and older folk just standing about. She got them all in one hut. "Sokka, come on, it's too dangerous. But her brother, ever the soldier, stood his ground. Well, he did until the till of the ship came too close to his heart, only then did he back up and landed on his ass.

The ship opened and Sokka rushed forward only to be thrown back by a man leading soldiers out. No not a man. But a boy about the age of 16. She didn't know for sure but she thought she was quite right in thinking that he was the banished prince exiled to look for the Avatar and capture him. What a rotten sea prune. Kidnapping the only chance at hope the rest of the world had. She was getting angrier by the second. What gave him the right to do this to world.?

He came front and center, like the entire village was his crowd of eager listeners. When he spoke, it startled Katara, his voice was rich and intoxicating. She loved the sound of it. How wrong. "Where is he? I know you're hiding him here." the stranger was animated now. "Come out you old coward."

Out of now where his hand shot out. It grabbed the back of Katara's coat and pulled her close to his side. Oddly, instead of feeling disgusted at being this close to the enemy all she felt was comfort. Warmth. Joy. She felt the cool sleek armor against her parka. There was something about him that she wanted to get to know. Something she wanted to explore. Something she wanted to touch. She had never felt like this before. And she didn't understand it. He was bad, whole and unadulterated evil. How could she feel this for someone like him? "Water Tribe girl, where are you hiding the Avatar?"

Katara couldn't respond to him for she was looking at his face. Eyes the color of a tiger's. beautiful and deadly. His face was marred by a scar that covered his left eye and ear. "Girl, where is he?"

"He…he…he's not here. He hasn't been around in 100 years." she tried and failed in sounding brave to the young man.

"You're lying! We saw him here only minutes ago." he pushed Katara away from him and she felt empty. Like she'd just lost the only person who would truly understand her.

"Looking for me?" Katara thought she was hallucinating when she saw Aang sliding in on a penguin of all things.

"You're the Avatar? You're the person I spent the last three years of my life looking for? A child?" the prince was disgusted.

"Yep, that's me." Aang took a stance staff in both hands and aimed at the prince.

"Then let's get this over with." fire benders were ruthless when fighting. The stance said it all.

Katara watched in wonderment as a battle rang out. Bender against bender. Fire against Air. Suddenly Aang stopped, looked behind and met Katara's eyes then looked back at the prince. "If I come with you will you leave here?" the prince nodded his word.

With that, they disappeared onto the fire nation ship. Not even minutes later Katara was running around trying to find Sokka so they could go find Aang and save him. But lucky her, Sokka was already go to go. But the canoe wouldn't do against a fire nation ship.

"Sokka, what are we going to do? This canoe is pathetic." Katara's hope faded.

"I don't know, I'm sorry, Katara, I tried." Sokka hung his head.

A loud noise came from across the river. "Is that… is that Appa?" Katara jumped up to get a better look. Sure enough the giant sky bison came tromping up the snow. Ready to get Aang.

"Yes!" Katara started to gather their things from the canoe when someone caught her attention. Her Gran Gran was staring at them waiting for them to notice her.

"I'm sorry, Gran, about what I said earlier. And I'm sorry about now, but we have to leave." Katara looked away unable to see, what she was sure were accusations in her grandmother's eyes

"Katara, Sokka, I know you must leave. I just wanted to give you these." she held up two sleeping bags. "You'll need these. You have a long journey ahead of you. You're destinies are now tied with that of the Avatar. Good luck." she hugged her only grandchildren one last time.

"Goodbye and thank you, Gran Gran." Katara and Sokka hopped up into Appa's saddle. Appa took long strides to the water's edge only to fall into it. They swam like that for seconds. "What was it that Aang said?"

"Wasn't it like 'yip yip'?" as soon as the words were out of his mouth, Appa rose gently into the air. They were flying. "Katara! We're flying we're actually flying. I knew the little guy was capable of it!" Katara smirked at him. "I mean, whoo flying. Such a big deal." he turned away from her and grinned from ear to ear like an idiot.

They finally made it to the fire navy ship that held Aang. The banished prince was going to take him to the Firelord. Aang, the Avatar. Katara still couldn't believe it. The Avatar had returned. Returned to restore balance in the world. Returned to restore peace to the people of the world. It was a dream come true for her.

And in order for this dream to really come to life they needed to get Aang out and alive. The feeling that today was the beginning of the rest of her life expanded.

Appa plummeted down toward the ship on his own accord, Aang needed him and he knew it. The bond between Appa and Aang was astounding.

As they landed on the ship deck, Aang came bursting out of the door with his staff. "Hey, guys, I thought you would show up." his face didn't scream that he had just escaped the clutches of the nasty fire benders who wanted him as their prisoner. Oddly, he just grinned the way children did when they won their favorite game.

She laughed, Aang was a special kid. Well, of course he was. "What? Did you think we were gonna let the last chance the world has for survival to fight an entire fire naval fleet?"

Sokka jumped from the saddle Appa was wearing and Katara followed him down. Without hesitation from the guards they had fire flying from all their able limbs. Sokka dodged fire blasts and ran straight toward the fire benders. Knocking two on the head, he sent them reeling into the frigid water.

Katara froze, she'd never done anything like this before. Suddenly, she was frightened and wanted to do nothing but jump on Appa's back and fly, fly right up to the heavens. "Katara, I kinda need your help here. You're the one with the magic water, remember?" she looked to her right and saw Sokka. He was fighting with half a dozen men. She had to help. She looked to her left and saw Aang. He was fighting with more than a dozen men. She really had to help.

Katara closed her eyes and felt the water below them. She could feel the water coming into her hands. Felt her element rushing into to give her the power she'd been born with. Her hands twitched with needing to feel the water coursing through them. Yeah, this was what being a water bender was all about. Though it could have been stronger. For all she knew this was either the best it got or it would get better the stronger she got. At the moment she didn't care. The water shifting through her now was enough to get her by. But it's not like she knew how to use the water to her advantage anyway.

She pushed her hands out in front of her and instead of freezing the men in front of her she froze something behind her. Or by the sound of it, someone. "KATARA! You're not supposed to be firing at me!" Of course, Sokka got in the way.

"Sorry!." she faced Sokka and threw her hands out again and this time she did freeze the men. She turned back around and saw that if she had hesitated any longer, she would have been captured. Thanking whoever was out there, she searched for Aang. Where was he? A noise caught her attention, it was Aang and the exiled prince fighting.

It was a frightening sight, but also electrifying. She had never seen two benders fight. Let alone two strong and powerful bender fight. Wind and fire moved together almost as one but also against one another. The combination sent chills up her back and had the hair on he arms standing on end.

Katara didn't know how much longer the fight was going to continue until Aang threw him over and into the ocean. Aang was jumping onto Appa in no time encouraging them to come with him. Katara jumped right up and was waiting for Sokka. But he was still stuck in the ice she had accidentally made. "Sokka, come on, this is no time to be messing around. We gotta go!"

He mumbled something unintelligent and started to beat the ice with his club. "You know, it's not as easy as it looks. If someone had been able to aim better, we wouldn't be in this situation, would we?" he finally broke the ice and hopped onto Appa's back just before the Exiled grabbed the back of his clothes.

"Hahahahah, now we gotta get out of here before we're caught for sure." Aang's laughter rang out high and loud.

"What are we gonna do now?" Katara asked in a small voice.

"Well, we're gonna go to the North Pole where we can both learn water bending from a master. But before we make it up there, we have a few stops to make. The first being to my home. The Southern Air Temple. Thanks, guys, for coming with me. It means a lot." his smile was infectious.

"You're welcome, Aang. I know this was how it was meant to be." Katara looked at him with eyes filled of appreciation.

"Yeah, I guess, you're welcome, Aang." Sokka laid back and just relaxed like he didn't have care in the world.

As they ascended into the air and away from her home, she couldn't help but notice that the Exiled was looking up at her. He truly was a magnificent specimen of man. But those thoughts were silly. She looked away and thought of her last goodbye to the woman who was there for her and Sokka for the past two years. She would miss her.

She couldn't stop herself from thinking about how much she would miss home. But the other half of her knew that the three of them and possibly the Exiled were going to be intertwined for years to come. The thought of it scared her because she didn't know what to expect. And for the same reason it intrigued her.

Katara wanted to ask Aang why he didn't tell them he was the Avatar, but thought better of it. If he wanted to tell them then he would have. Maybe he didn't want to be the Avatar, but that thought was just ridiculous. Why wouldn't he want to be? Yes, it was an awesome responsibility, but there's no way he wouldn't want it.

Finally, Katara just sat back and followed Sokka's example and relaxed. She didn't worry about anything at all right now. Just wanted to feel the wind flowing around her and Appa. It was like she was really flying but safer. She closed her eyes and fell asleep to the howling wind.


	2. Chapter 2

_Southern Air Temple_

"_I am so happy to be going home. You guys have no idea!" Aang jumped up and down on Appa's back while they sailed through the sky._

"_Aang, you shouldn't get too excited. You should know something. Before you disappeared Sozin wiped out the air benders so the Avatar wouldn't be reborn." Katara didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but he needed to hear it._

"_I know, Katara, you already told me, but I doubt they got to my people. I'm sure Monk Gyatso moved them before anything bad could happen to them." his smile didn't faltered at the thought that his home could be destroyed._

"_I'm sure you're right, but I just don't want you to get your hopes up."_

"_Katara, if I don't have a little bit of hope how will I be able to do anything?"_

"_I'm not saying you can't be excited. I'm just saying ground yourself a little. I don't want you to get hurt if it's not like how you remember it a hundred years ago."_

"_You're right, my room must be a mess and so is the rest of the temple that I was supposed to clean. Oh man, I'm gonna be in so much trouble." Aang genuinely seemed to be worried about being reprimanded for not cleaning._

"_Aang, I doubt that's the biggest thing you need to worry about." Katara tried in vain to get him to understand, he would non of it._

_He didn't seem to hear her when she talked. "We gotta get going guys, I can't wait to see Monk Gyatso." he left them in the saddle and went up on Appa's head where he take control and make Appa go faster. They would be at the Southern Air Temple in no time._

_§¨©ª_

"_We're here! We're here! We're here!" Aang pulled Katara's hood over her head and shook Sokka awake._

"_What is happening? I had a dream we were flying on a bison and sleeping so peacefully and fulfilling. Oh wait, that wasn't a dream. We actually were! So what gives, Aang? Why did you disturb me from the best dream I've had in… well, forever." Sokka inched his way out of his sleeping bag. His face was inches from Aang's and looked ready to take his head off with his boomerang if given the chance._

"_What about that one dream, Sokka, when you were the Avatar and you got all the girls?" Katara asked in a soft voice trying to get Sokka to take his mind off his anger for being woken up so early._

"_Eh, you're right, that was my best dream. I guess, you have been spared Aang." Sokka stretched his back and hopped down from Appa. "So, what's with the tower of rocks?"_

_Aang looked at Sokka as if he were crazy with fever. "Those rocks just happen to be the homes of the Southern Air Temple. So watch what you're saying Sokka ."_

_Katara felt Aang's anger from where she was atop the bison. She decided she should probably try to save her brother from an air bender's rage, "Sokka, could you please try and find us something to eat? I know how much you get hungry and quite frankly, I'm getting a little hungry too." as if wanting to add for effect, her stomach growled._

_He looked her, smirking, "I knew I would be the one you guys would come running to when you needed something. Now, don't you worry yourself, Katara. I'll find us some food." he puffed out his chest, grabbed his boomerang and club and left Aang and Katara to themselves._

_Sokka got no further than a few feet when his attention was caught by something red. "Katara, could you come here please?" Aang helped her off Appa and she rushed forward._

"_What is it now, Sokka?" he was kneeling in the dirt pointing to something. A Fire Nation helmet._

_She saw Aang coming forward, knowing she couldn't let him see, she knocked some snow on the helmet covering it up. "What was it guys?"_

_Katara looked at her brother, hoping he would go along with this rouse. "It was just a really cool… rock that I wanted to give to… my Gran Gran but I wanted Katara's… opinion of it first." he wasn't the best liar, but he did manage to fool Aang._

"_Oh, well, that's cool. Are you gonna go find food now? I'm starting to get hungry too." Aang rubbed his stomach._

"_Right, yeah of course." Sokka left again, this time actually leaving._

_Katara looked at Aang from beneath her eyes lashes. His eyes were still a little angry from Sokka's comment, but after a moment of looking at her, oddly, he calmed down some. "So, this was your home? Wanna show me around or something?" she seemed unsure about it all. Like she didn't know if his temper would flare up again or if he would jump at the chance to show her his beloved home._

_He hesitated slightly, but couldn't give up the opportunity to show off the place he grew up. "Alright, you convinced me Katara, let's go look around." "You're gonna love it here, Katara. Maybe, if we are able to, we can stay here for a bit?" he asked in an unsure voice._

_She smiled, "yeah, maybe, Aang, maybe." she followed closely behind, not wanting to get lost. But as they trekked on, a rustling noise came from a bush nearby. She eeped and crept closer to him. "What was that?"_

_Aang left her in the same spot while he went forward to investigate the noise. He rummaged around in the lush plant and pulled back quickly. "This is what you were afraid of? This helpless, little guy?" Aang turned around and faced Katara. In his arms he held a small creature with enormous green eyes and even bigger ears. She knew what it was from its ringed tail and excess skin from his arms to his legs. A flying lemur._

_He laid in Aang's arms without a care in the world. Like he didn't just scare Katara shitless or possibly could have died if someone else had found them. No he was calm as any other creature, just relaxing in the armed cradle Aang was creating._

"_Well, he is definitely not what I thought he was. But he is absolutely adorable and not threatening." Katara couldn't help but smile at the little lemur._

_Aang swirled the air around him making his infamous scooter and with the lemur in his arms left Katara standing there alone. Katara could hear his laughter from the other side of the courtyard. Aang and his childish ways were going to get him in major trouble one of these days._

_He really was only a kid with an immense burden on his shoulders that could bring the world itself to its knees. But he couldn't be a kid forever, he would need to grow up sooner or later. She only hoped it would be sooner. The planet couldn't handle anymore war. Couldn't handle anymore pain. Couldn't handle anymore suffering. Couldn't handle anymore death._

_She looked after Aang and saw him playing with the little lemur, tossing him in the air and catching him in a whirlwind of air. "Katara, you gotta come play with us." he threw him up and as he was in mid-air he flung out his arms and took flight. He soared through the sky in the opposite direction of her and Aang._

_They waited there for several moments waiting to see if he would come back. He didn't. "No, little guy, come back!" Aang yelled to the sky wanting his new friend to return to him._

_Katara looked back at Aang and felt a little bad for him at the sight of his grey eyes full of hurt at losing a friend. "It's okay, Aang, maybe you'll see him later." the more she looked into his eyes the more she realized that he was more childlike than she had thought. Growing up was going to be a hard thing for him. But it has to be done. "Come on, Aang, show me the temples."_

_He jumped up like nothing had happened. "Alright, Katara, let's go!"_

_§¨©ª_

_Sokka stalked his prey quietly watching it move stealthily eating berries it found. Just as he was about to jump from his hiding spot, the creature moved away quickly almost flying away. He landed on his feet grumbling about stupid flying things. He went to find the animal when a gust of wind blew him off his feet._

_Speaking of stupid flying things, Aang came running up behind him and blew more air leaving Sokka suspended in the air for enough time to let Aang get ahead of him. Sokka landed on his ass dazed and confused. "Sorry, Sokka, but you can't eat him. He's my friend." _

_Sokka let a gurgled noise out and chased after Aang, no way was he letting that Airbending freak steal his dinner out from under him if Sokka could help it._

_His eyes fell on his brown leather boots watching them hit the ground with hard solid thumps. He had been training faithfully everyday since his father had left, so running was nothing big to him. But what was discouraging him was the acceleration Aang had. Sokka thought of himself as more of a distance guy rather than a speedy guy. The thought of giving up and letting Aang keep the animal without a big fight was tempting, but he could never do that. Wasn't in his DNA to give up so quickly. He pressed on, harder and harder._

_He saw Aang in the distance and continued, having a reward again made it easier. He kept his eyes down until he felt his lungs giving in. He was pushing harder than he was used to. Reluctantly, Sokka stopped, putting his hands on his knees and his head between his legs, he realized that having the Avatar around was going to be both useful and difficult._

_Brr umm bumm bumm. _

_Sokka looked above his head and saw the flying creature that was causing all this trouble. He reached behind his back and pulled out his boomerang. The angular metal felt cooled to him and relished in the feel of its curves in his hand. His favorite weapon who always did what he needed without fail._

_Just as he was going to throw it up Aang, again, blew wind and threw Sokka off his feet. Dammit all to hell! This was going to get real irritating real fast. "Aang, please we need food."_

_Aang stopped running in front of him and faced him. He was huddling over the meat and protecting it. "No, Sokka, this is a creature of this temple. You can't destroy it. I won't let you."_

_The thing jumped from Aang's arms. Both boys stood still, neither wanting to make the first move that would set off the stand still between them. Seconds went by then minutes, Sokka was getting tired of this. He would have given up too if the animal hadn't brought back fruit. A lot of fruit. So much fruit that Sokka forgot about the winged creature. He jumped the food and just inhaled most of it._

_Aang scooped up the lemur and slowly stepped away from the food crazed warrior. He turned around only to smack his face into something hard and be knocked off his feet again. Rubbing his injured body he saw a massive door. What is this? I've never seen this door before._

Katara came running up, finally catching up with the boys. "You guys are ridiculous. Aang, what are you doing down there?" he pointed to the door, and she couldn't help but snicker. "What's in there?"

Aang shrugged, "I have no idea, never noticed this door before."

Katara pulled Aang to his feet. "Well, let's find out. Sokka come here. We need your help."

Sokka whined his protest. Literally whined. But got up anyway. Together they found out that pushing the door wouldn't work. Throwing water on it wouldn't help anything and neither would hitting it with a club.

They slumped against the door and slid down. "This is useless. We're never getting in there."

Aang threw his head back and hit it against the door with a thunk. He looked up at it and rubbed his head. "Wait a minute, I think there is." he stood.

"What is it?" Katara was on her feet too dragging Sokka with her.

"Look here, these are for Airbending. All I have to do is shoot similar Air Blasts up the chutes." he pointed it all out to him.

Sokka's face fell, "that's all we had to do! We spent at lest an hour trying to figure it out and now you tell me all you have to do is what comes natural to you!"

Aang smiled, "Yup!" he took his stance and pushed his arms out sending Air out and into the cylinders. It opened. They stepped inside. They stopped just within the boundaries from inside and out. Aang's movements stopped. Sokka's face held confusion. Katara gasped.

Inside the room were statues. Statues of all past Avatars.

§¨©ª

"Prince Zuko, the ship needs major repairs done before we can continue on our voyage." General Iroh said softly to his nephew not wanting to upset him anymore than he was.

"Damn the Avatar. Look as the destruction that child has done to our ship, to our Nation. He won't get away with this. But for now let's dock and find someone to fix this piece of metal." Zuko walked away from his uncle and went into his room sulkily.

He walked in and with a rage he'd be feeling since he was thirteen hit the door with his Fire Fist. Leaving a dent and a scorch mark. Things were not going the way that he planned them to go. He hit the shores of the Southern Water Tribe hoping to find the Avatar, but on arrival he was lied to and tricked. Desperate, he hoped that by taking one of the peasants hostage they would give up the Avatar.

He didn't expect two things to happen when he snagged the back of the dark haired, blue eyed beauty's parka. He didn't anticipate the Avatar coming forth to save the village and the girl.

But mostly he didn't predict the turbulence of emotions that would go through his mind and body. Zuko didn't understand what would happen if he coddled the girl against his side and menacingly threatened the village. He had no clue that even through the thickness of her coat and the sleekness of his armor he could feel her body warming him and making him feel apart of something. He didn't know that by looking in her ocean colored eyes it would be a fatal mistake and eventually it would result in his demise, he just knew it would. He had no idea that by coddling her, looking into her eyes and sensing her warmth and being would make him feel like he was alive. Like she was his sole reason for living and she was his destiny to pursue.

He wanted to see her deep dark blue eyes again. Wanted to delve into this feeling of completion. Wanted to know why she did this to him. Made him feel like a child with a new secret crush, made him feel like he actually had a chance at happiness with a female who was decent, beautiful, and respectable.

And he knew the only way of seeing her again was by pursuing the Avatar. Both objectives were within reach and were traveling together. Convenient for him. He could kill the two proverbial birds with one stone. He only hoped it would be worth it when he caught the child and became reunited with the dark haired dream that she would feel the same way. Actually it didn't matter what she thought or what she wanted, because if he wanted her then he would have her. One way or another.

A knock sounded at his burnt, dented door. Uncle walked in and closed the door, his hands brushed the mark, he looked at it and grimaced. "Nephew, we have been stopped by another ship. Only problem is we were stopped by Zhao. He wants to know what happened to our ship."

Zuko's temper flared up again in hostility. Damn that man and his knack for constantly finding them no matter where they were or what was happening to them. Zuko and his crew would forever be out running him if they didn't find a way to stop the bastard. "Okay, then let's stop and see what he wants. Maybe he'll let us pass without giving us a problem." he pushed past his uncle and ascended to the top deck.

Iroh gave Zuko a look of doubt, clearly not believing his nephew for one second. But he held his tongue and followed the prince up the stairs to see what the commander wanted. He wouldn't be good news it never was when it came to this man. A good commander as any should be, but as cold, calculating, and evil as Azula herself.

The general's feet hit the deck as the commander came aboard. "General Iroh, Prince Zuko, what has become of your ship?" his smirk said he thought the residents of the ship ran it quite poorly.

Zuko hated this man, no not man, beast was more appropriate, with a passion so fierce it rivaled his need to hunt the Avatar. He was the worse kind of being alive, stopping at nothing to get what he wanted. Though some would say the same of Zuko himself, but he knew he was different than Zhao. Knew he was more human than this creature standing before him. His feelings for the Water Tribe girl proved that much.

He knew he couldn't tell Zhao the truth. If he knew that the Avatar was out there alive and well. Zuko would have no chance in hell of getting to him before Zhao. So he did what he knew how to do best. He deceived. "We were attacked by giant Koi Fish out in the Earth Kingdom waters. The boat took on more damage than we thought it did." he learned lying from his sister, the master, but he still wasn't all that impressive. He still had a lot to learn.

"Repairs need to be made I see." Zhao sneered at Zuko. Evidently the commander didn't believe Zuko's lie as well as the prince hoped he had. "Too bad there's nothing close enough for that to happen. Except of course, my port."

The rotten bastard. Zuko knew he didn't have a chance in hell of making it anywhere, but Zhao's. Damn the man that stood before Zuko. Damn the man that tried to take everything away from him. He hoped that one day Zhao would get what was coming to him.

Iroh jumped in before Zuko's temper got the better of him, "How kind of you Zhao. We'd be honored if you helped us." the general plastered on a fake smile.

Zhao didn't notice the false niceties. He retreated back to his own ship and led Zuko's ship back to the only safe harbor within range.

Zuko whirled on his uncle. "Why? Why did you do that?" his temper was flaring. Iroh could feel the heat coming off him in waves.

Iroh looked his nephew and spoke with a calm, soothing voice. "Because he knew and we need a place to fix our ship. That's why. So please my nephew, keep your temper under control." he left Zuko alone to ponder the older man's wisdom, knowing that Zuko would come to his senses, control himself and be civilized.

Zuko hated the man sometimes and all his infinite wisdom. He was right though of course, but the Prince still hated it. He made his way to his rooms and laid on his bed, hoping to get in a few minutes at least of some solid sleep. Instead when he closed his eyes and let the blackness of sleep consume him, two moonlit orbs filled his mind. Two blue spheres. Two ocean eyes.

§¨©ª

"This is amazing Aang, it's literally you in a past life. You're past cycles. Did you know these were back here?" Katara couldn't believe what she was seeing. This room was astounding.

Aang stood in front of Katara, stunned. He had never seen this before, had no idea this place even existed. He voiced this so to the Waterbender. He wondered why he hadn't been back in this room. He had thought that he'd explored all the Air Temple's rooms. Apparently he did not.

Sokka stepped forward and touched the first Avatar statue he saw. "This is kinda creepy, guys, they're so life like."

Aang came up behind Sokka and peered over his shoulder. "You're right, this is creepy." Aang poked the statue expecting it to come to life…

Katara had walked away from them mesmerized by the statues. Each one of these was based on a person. An Avatar with a story about their life and the trials they went through to save the world. Stories about how they came to be the Avatar. Stories about their loves and friendships. It saddened her to know she would never know any of these stories.

She stopped just short of the most recent Avatar before Aang, Roku. She wandered how it was being alive when the four nations were together in harmony. How it might have to live in the Fire Nation. She looked into the statue's stone eyes, wondering about so many things. Then the impossible happened. His eyes lit up.

"Uh, guys, I think it's about to creepier! The eyes are glowing on Roku!" she heard the boys come running behind her.

"What did you do, Katara?" Sokka accused her in his brotherly way.

"Me? I didn't do anything. You're the one who was poking it!" Katara pointed her finger at him.

"That wasn't me, that was Aang." both Sokka and Katara turned their heads toward the Airbender.

"Guys, whether it was my fault or not can wait. Right now I think we got a bigger problem." he tilted his head in the direction of the statues. One by one they watched as the Avatars' eyes began illuminating the room. What was going on?

§¨©ª

The fire sages were going about their routinely days. One Fire Sage in particular looked within Avatar Roku's worshipping room. The eyes on the statue shown. The statues only shine when an Avatar had returned.

He ran from, searching for the man who was the messenger. "You, send word to the Fire Lord, the Avatar is alive!"

§¨©ª

They slowly started backing out of the room, scared they had broken something. They were outside the door when their new friend ascended in the air and flew away. "No!" Aang almost broke down. This little creature was causing a lot of problems for them, but Aang wasn't let him get away so easily. They all took off after him, not letting him get away yet again.

He went into a room on the other side of the temple. Aang flew after it on his staff while Katara and Sokka kept going on foot. They reached the room and Aang stopped short, falling to his knees. Sokka came up to him and saw what he was seeing.

Bones. Everywhere. Piles of them. Just laying around. Filling the room. Except a chair, where a whole skeleton sat in yellow and orange attire similar to Aang's. Sokka looked at Aang. His mouth turned down, his eyebrows came down to a V, and his eyes narrowed and visibly darkened. Sokka could feel the anger radiating off of him. _Where are you, Katara? _he wondered, knowing that when it came down to it, Katara was the only one who could calm Aang down in dire situations.

Aang's own eyes began glowing as were his tattoos. As he ascended into the sky, earth and air swirled around him. Sokka knew this was not going to end well. He tried to help the person he was slowly getting used to. But as soon as he got close enough to do anything, Aang sent a gust of win so big it destroyed everything inside the room and propelled Sokka back out through the doorway.

"Sokka, what's happening?" Katara had finally caught up with the boys only to find Aang suspended in the air with his eyes and tattoos glowing. She stood there unsure of what to do. She was scared, but knew she had to do something about it all. Somehow she had to stop Aang from destroying the entire temple and them all.

She walked forward slowly for the force of the wind he was blowing was bad. Very bad. She finally reached Aang. She latched her hand around his forearm and gently tried pulling him down back to earth. He looked down at her and all she saw was anger, she pleaded him with her eyes and his features relaxed into calm look of contentment. His eyes slowly turned back to their normal steely grey color and his arrows went back to their normal blue.

He collapses against Katara and sobbed uncontrollably. She didn't know how to handle this, Sokka had never cried like this before. She just held him close, "it's okay, Aang, you had no idea that this was gonna happen. You couldn't have prevented it. Right now the only thing you can do to help, is first learning Waterbending in the North Pole. Come on we gotta go."

Moments passed before he moved and even then it was sluggish. "Thanks, Katara, I know you're right, let's go." he stood up, this time with more determination.

Sokka popped out from behind his rock, checking to see if the coast was clear. Apparently, he deemed it so. He came out with the lemur right behind him. Aang laughed, "We're gonna keep the little guy. And his name is going to be… Momo. Yeah, Momo sounds like a good name for ya, doesn't little buddy?" Momo chirped his approval and climbed to Aang's shoulder.

They left the temple and found Appa. They were the last three remaining living things from the Southern Air Temple. They had to stick together. "Alright, guys, we gotta keep going."

§¨©ª

Iroh and Zuko finally made it into Zhao's port. As soon as they were off their ship they were immediately transported onto Zhao's. Two men each grabbed Zuko and Iroh and roughly set them in seats. Zhao came in, with holier than thou act as usual.

"We know, you're lying. So, why don't you just tell me what actually happened to your ship." he circled the men until Iroh gave in. "The Avatar, he's what happened to our ship." Zuko gave his uncle a sharp look.

Zhao sneered, "ah, I see, much thanks to you Iroh. Get these men off my ship now!" he barked his last order. "Oh, and Zuko, I don't ever want to see you again," he looked directly into Zuko's eyes, "that means if I see you coming after the Avatar, I will not hesitate in shooting you down, got it?"

Zuko stared back, "perfectly." he and Iroh were shoved from the ship. "Uncle, what are we going to do now?" he turned on his uncle, letting him feel the fire burning inside him.

Iroh looked back, not flinching, "We do what we started. We hunt for the Avatar. After the repairs are made."

Zuko smirked, "Let's go then. Now." they headed for the shops. They were on their way to capture the prize. The honor. The glory. The Avatar.


	3. Chapter 3

Kyoshi Island

Appa's fur was getting stuck in Katara's mouth. Again. She was getting sick of it, but loved him enough to accept it. She smiled to herself as she sewed together a hole in Sokka's pants. He'd received the hole while in the Southern Air Temple. It seemed that Momo had gotten his revenge on Sokka for his attempting at eating the poor little creature.

"Katara! Katara! Watch this!" in the back of Katara's mind she heard Aang's voice wanting her to watch him do something or another. But quite frankly, she just didn't care. Her mind was on so many other things. The exiled prince being one of them, but also Sokka's holy pants. She hated sewing things, especially Sokka's stuff.

"Aang, do you know where we're going?" Sokka sat pants less in Appa's saddle without a care in the world.

Aang, disappointed, turned the map up and down, side to side. He was unsure of what was what or where was where. "Uh, no, no I do not know where we are or where we are going. Heheh!" he laughed nervously.

"Damn it, Aang, you said you knew where we were going!" Sokka exclaimed angrily, "now, we're not ever gonna find where we're supposed to go!"

Katara set down Sokka's pants for a minute, "Here, let me see if I can tell where we are." she outstretched her hand waiting for the map when Sokka smacked it out of Aang's hand.

Leaning forward with the look of a crazed man, he explained things to Aang, "Women, don't know how to read maps. They don't know how to do any of those things. They're good for only a few things. One: cooking, two: cleaning, three: taking care of the children, four: sewing and five: doing laundry. It's even less if you lump some of those together." he sat back, arms resting behind his back and a smug, know-it-all expression on his face. "Women do the housework, while the men do the really important stuff. Like hunting and fighting." _Sokka's smug grin was getting more and more infuriating. The bumbling idiot didn't know a thing_, Katara thought.

Katara could feel her face burning with anger. Felt the rage course through her body. Flowing though her life blood within her veins, of all the stupid things her brother's ever said, this had to have been the worse.

"Oh, really, Sokka? Well if that's the case then you can forget about me doing anything for you. You can sew your own fucking pants!" she flung the holy pants at her older brother's face making solid contact.

Sokka lifted his pants off his face in complete shock, "Katara, are you serious? Come on, sis, this is serious. I can't walk around without something covering my junk. I need my pants hole less!" his face turned from that dense egotistical expression to that of pleading and needing. Needing her to do what he refused to do.

Katara crossed her arms across her chest in defiance, tired of her brother belittling her, "you can sew them yourself. I'm not doing anything for you anymore until you realize that the things I do are important."

Sokka grumbled and mumbled his unintelligible answer to her, she didn't know what he was saying, but she didn't care. She was done taking crap from her 'older brother' about how she was supposed to take care of him.

Aang laughed again, "don't worry, Sokka, where we're going you won't need pants! I found where we need to be on the map. Kind of." Aang pushed against Appa's neck, causing the giant sky creature to descent full speed.

Katara and Sokka held on tightly to Appa's saddle. Katara wanted to scream, but the force of their fall was too great, it was literally throwing Katara's lips over her face. Oh, how she hated when Aang did this and unfortunately he did this a lot. Curse Aang and all his child-like antics, she thought to herself then smiled. She knew that she didn't really mean it. His mentality was one of the things she admired about him.

Finally Appa slowed down. But just enough to land on the little island below them. "Aang, where are we?" Katara finally recovered her voice enough to squeak out the question.

Aang hopped off his Bison and started to discard his clothing. Katara's face turned a slight pinkish color. She'd never seen anything under Aang's clothes. She didn't know that his arrows ran along the back of his legs just as they did on his arms. He wasn't as toned as she thought he would be but that was probably due to the fact that he'd been trapped inside an iceberg for one hundred years.

It was odd seeing Aang in nothing but his underwear. She had thought for sure that she had liked him that way. But now seeing him, in the most basic way a person could be, she felt nothing. Nothing but a motherly need to tell him that he shouldn't go into the water because the weather was so cold.

She shook her head and pushed away her thoughts of motherhood. She was tired of being the care taker. Sokka could take care of himself. And Aang too for that matter. She jumped down from the sky bison's back.

Aang was knee deep in the water now and getting further, Katara tried to keep her mouth shut. She tried and tried but it was to no avail. "Aang, what are you doing in there? It's cold out here!"

The Air Nomad looked back at Katara, "Why not? It's fine. I'll be fine. Just a little chilly out. Besides I want to ride the Unagi. It's the biggest giant Koi fish in the ocean. Well, I'm not even sure if it's a Koi fish. I just know it's huge and I _need _to ride it." he jumped in head first and came up shivering. "See, it's not _that _cold…"

Katara laughed to herself, knowing full well that he was lying, but let him have his fun anyway. She sat upon a rock and watched the child ride the other Koi fish. She waved her hand trying to get his attention "Aang, which one is the Unagi?" he didn't seem to hear her, so she just left it alone, closed her eyes, relaxed and felt the sun warm her face.

Aang looked at Katara, she didn't seem to be watching him, like he wanted her to be. "Katara, hey, Katara, watch this!" he yelled, but still she didn't seem to hear him. He was about to use the air around to make the noise travel faster when he heard a splash from behind him.

He thought it was Sokka finally growing a pair and getting into the water. When he turned around he saw that it was in fact, not Sokka, but the Unagi. A huge creature that was both beautiful and deadly. Aang didn't know what it was going to do until it snapped it's huge jaws at him. Aang screamed and jumped off the Koi fish.

Katara finally saw the Airbender and bounced up. "Aang!"

Aang was swimming, diving his head in and out of the water, that would make any sea creature proud. He jumped onto the shore so fast that he almost took out Katara in his attempt to get to safety. He slid behind a rock, grabbing his clothes as he went. "That… was… the… Unagi…" he was breathless when he popped out from behind the rock fully clothed.

Katara looked at Aang with a stern expression, "That's the thing you wanted, no needed to ride? Are you insane?"

Aang was catching his breath, "but, of course, Katara. Isn't it magnificent? But I didn't get to ride him. Next time though, he won't stand a chance." his grin was as wide as it was stupid.

Katara looked at Aang, "Ugh, whatever, Aang." she crossed her arms and turned her back to them. Sometimes she just couldn't believe that the _Avatar_ could be so careless.

She chided herself. Of course she knew the reason he was careless. He'd been trapped inside a frozen confinement for a century. The fact that he wasn't more careless amazed her. She figured she should be nicer to him. He was after all the last hope for the world.

She smiled and turned around, "alright, guys I think it's time we get going bef-" Katara's sentences was cut short when she saw Aang and Sokka sitting on their asses, hands bound behind their backs with black bags covering their faces. _What the hell?_ Katara couldn't voice her question. Not long after seeing the boys captured her vision went black.

§¨©ª

Suki looked at the other Kyoshi warriors and nodded slightly. A few of the warriors snatched up the trespassers non so nicely and vanished into the trees. Who the hell did these people think they were? Coming to Kyoshi Island without a word to the leader was the worst mistake these travelers could have made. Suki would see to it that these people were killed. They couldn't risk them telling the Fire Nation about them.

§¨©ª

Zuko practiced his breathing. In and out. Deeply and slowly. He felt the air moving in from his nose filling his lungs, puffing out his chest and out his mouth. His preparation was taking a big part of his life lately. If he wasn't breathing and doing his drills he was thinking about that damn Water Tribe girl.

Zuko yelled out into his living quarters. Why? Why did she make him feel a starving man deserted on an island who'd been presented with a feast fit for a king? She was there just beyond the horizon (well technically, he had no idea where they were) easy for the taking if only he grasp her. Firmly. Gently. Sexually. Wholly.

She would be hers.

A knock sounded at his door, "come in," Zuko shouted. Sometimes these people just didn't know when to leave him alone.

He opened his eyes to see Uncle sauntered in like he had news to share. "What are you doing, my nephew?"

Zuko closed his eyes once more, concentrating on his meditation. "What does it look like I'm doing, Uncle?" Iroh seemed to unusually quiet at the moment, "what is it, Uncle, what do you need to tell me?" the prince's eyes flew open yet again. His uncle wasn't telling him something.

Iroh shifted his eyes about him, "Well, you see, Zuko. Do you remember how we thought we were on the Avatar's trail?" Zuko nodded, "it seems to me and the crew that the Airbender… disappeared…"

All of his meditation, calm rationality went right out the door the bad news came in through. His temper rose and it went right white hot. "HE DID WHAT? HOW DID HE GET AWAY? YOU TOLD ME YOU KNEW WHERE HE WAS GOING!" as his temper rose so did the heat within him. The fire that he controlled was raging and spouted from his hands on its own accord nearly missing his uncle.

Iroh jumped up and inched slowly to the door, "Prince Zuko, you need to remain calm. We will find him."

"Calm? You want me to be calm?" Zuko realized he was being an ass to the only man he knew to be a father, "…okay."

The general looked at his nephew unsure about his intentions. "Worry not, nephew, we'll find him all in due time." Iroh took his leave as quickly as he'd entered. _That went better than I thought it would._ He thought to himself thanking Agni.

Zuko watched the door close on the retreating back of his uncle. How that old man drove him crazy! He turned his attention back to his meditating. In and out. Cerulean eyes, chocolate hair. The elements that made up the prize he would have.

§¨©ª

The air inside his bag was getting harder to breathe in. How much longer were these warriors going to keep them gagged and bound? If he ever got out he was going to show them how a real warrior fought face to face. Non of that girly sneak-up-on-you from behind tactic. He was getting more and more angry for every second he was held against his will tied against a damn post.

Sokka heard a noise coming to his left. Katara! She was tied against the tree too. If they hurt her he wasn't sure what he would do. His Gran Gran would be so upset. The disappointment of his father alone would kill him. But if he lost her, he wouldn't be able to function right. His sister was the most important person in his life. And would forever remain that way. There's was no one in this world or the next that he cared more about.

He strained against his bonds. Trying his damnedest to get free. He began to realize that the more he struggled the harder it became to breathe. He told himself to be calm and rational. Hahah, who was kidding? He was the most irrational kid in his village. The noise to his left sounded again. Almost like a whimper. Damn it, he hoped like hell Katara was okay.

He opened his mouth to voice his question when the bag that was blocking his sight was roughly pulled from over his head. He squinted his eyes against the sudden brightness. Figures moved all around him but he couldn't make any of them out. But he still managed to look his left and see Katara with the same dazed look on her face. She was alright.

Sokka shook his head trying to clear his mind. The blurred figures began to take their full shape. There were women all around them. They were dressed in earthy green dresses and dark brown. Their heads had golden crown like things. Their faces were painted with drastic make-up, hiding their identities. _Who were these women?_

He couldn't take this silence anymore, "Who are you and where are the men that attacked us?" Sokka's head swiveled back and forth looking for the dirty bastards.

The girl he'd been studying earlier stepped forward, clearly, she was the leader. "Men? Hahah," she laughed maniacally, but it also seemed kind and sweet at the same time. Like it had the potential to be beautiful, but she forced it out as cruel. "Do you think bumbling idiots like men could have captured all of you and not do anything wrong?" she smirked.

In a strange way, this girl was almost cute, real cute in fact. Sokka slammed his eyes shut and swung his head in a circle. Have could he have been thinking about something like that while they were being held hostage? He knew why. He was sixteen, lived in a village where older females consisted of his sister and the _elder_. It wasn't exactly something he wanted to touch bases on.

What she had said sunk in, "what do you mean men didn't ambush us? Who did then?"

She looked directly at him, her green eyes so bright, stared into his soul it seemed. She spoke only two words with deliberated slowness, "We. Did." she held up her index finger swirling it around to the women around her to include the 'we'.

Sokka was completely mind blown. There was no way that these girls in dresses for Agni's sake could have overpowered them. Him. He voiced his thoughts and she bit right back.

"If you think us to be just a bunch of girls, then it would seem that the sea beast will be eating quite well tonight. Or would you like to tell us who you are and what you think you're doing here?" her voice had a lilt to it that had Sokka all out of focus. She spoke with determination like that of a soldier, but also with a sweetness like that of what women should have.

Katara seemed to have finally come out of whatever daze she was in, "Hey, there's no need to feed my brother to that creature, right? He's just kinda stupid at times." Katara pleaded with the face painted warriors.

The leader looked at the trio as if she couldn't care less about what they had to say unless it was relevant to her questions. Again she laughed, again Sokka's thoughts went haywire. Something about the way she laughed told him it would haunt him in his dreams.

Aang spoke up, "Um, guys, can I just say that first of all, Sokka, I know where we are now. Kyoshi Island! Second: warrior lady, I'm the Avatar and I can explain this all if you just let us go."

"The Avatar! Hahah, what do you take us for? Fools? We know that Kyoshi died over four hundred years ago. And that the new Avatar hasn't been seen for over a hundred years." the leader looked down at them like the were scum. "Do you want to try answering again? And this time be honest."

Aang looked up the female warrior, "Please just let us go, and we won't have to escape." the Airbender tried his hardest not to give away his tactic.

The warrior looked at Aang with one eyebrow raised, "You think your minor threats are something for us to worry about? You're nothing but a child." the leader turned her back to them to converse with what Aang thought to be the chief of the village.

Now was his chance. He opened his mouth as wide as he could get it and took in as much air that he could fit inside his lungs. He bent his head and blew it all out. Aang flew into the air to the top of the post. His bonds were left, neglected, below with the Water Tribe kids. "Excuse me? Can you please let us go, now?"

The female warrior turned around, looking to the spot where Aang was supposed to be. Her eyes grew to the size of the sun. He whistled at her and her head immediately snapped up. Her eyes narrowed then realization set in. "You really are the Avatar, aren't you?"

He nodded briefly and all of the warriors rapidly fell to their knees and bowed. All except the leader, instead she slowly stepped forward all the while looking at the Avatar and untied the dark skinned ones. "I apologize for any convenience, Avatar, I meant no harm." after her apology she calmly descended to her hands and knees, putting her head down.

Aang floated down from the post and landed lightly on his feet, "No, you don't need to bow, please get up. There's no need for that." he touched the leader on her shoulder, "my name's Aang. And these are my friends and companions, Sokka and Katara."

Katara extended her hand to the woman who rose to her feet, "Hi, my brother and I are from the Southern Water Tribe. We apologize for any harm we might have brought to your island."

The warrior accepted her hand, "Hello, my name's Suki. As the Avatar has said, this is Kyoshi Island and we are the Kyoshi Warriors. I am the eldest, the leader. So if you have any complaints, please do not hesitate to come to me first with any problems." although her face covered in paint her facial expressions visibly relax. Sokka had a very bad feeling that this girl was going to be around more than she should have.

§¨©ª

Aang and Katara sat at a dining table placed in their rooms that was piled with food, or desserts rather, all of it from the Kyoshi Island villagers. Aang was stuffing his face with every assortment he could grab. Katara, able to control the hunger eating at her stomach, took one at a time and slowly put them into her mouth. Five minutes of doing this and she couldn't control herself any longer. She didn't take her time just barreled food into her opened mouth.

Strangely, the only one was not eating was the one who could out eat them all. Sokka laid on the floor, doing what he does second best, complaining. "I can not believe that we our asses beat by a group of girls in dresses!" he rolled into a sitting position.

Katara wiped her mouth getting all the crumbs hidden on her face. "Sokka, why don't you just come eat. Come on, I know how much you love food. And this is good food. It's sweeeeeet!" she said in a sing-song voice, trying to get her big brother to forget about their capture.

Sokka got his feed and gave Katara the 'look'. "I'm not hungry right now. I'm too upset about being beaten by GIRLS! It wasn't even a fair fight. They did a girly move by sneaking up on us." Sokka was fuming now. He could feel it coming on and knew he had to let it out. "I'll be back later." he turned around and was almost to the door when his stomach growled. Damn he was so close too. He turned back to the table. He opened his bag and put one of each of the desserts in his bag. "Turns out I actually was hungry. Now I'll be back later."

Once he was outside he opened his bag and stuffed his mouth with all the treats he got. After he was full he walked down to the river and splashed water over his face. _How could those girls gotten the jump on me?_ He'd always prided himself on being the best warrior in the village. The fact that the village was made up of children and people it was no wonder that he was the best.

Knowing what he had to do, he walked up the hill to the small village and found the place where Suki and the other Kyoshi warriors trained. He would show them just how good of a warrior he was. No matter what he had to do.

§¨©ª

Inside their training room, Suki and the other warriors were laughing. Laughing about their capture of the three travelers. More precisely, one traveler and even more precise, Sokka. Hostility was something they encountered all the time because they were females who fought for what they believed in. But Sokka's was something in and of itself.

"You know what I think, Suki?" Terriana, her second in command, asked Suki. "I think that Sokka might have a minor crush on our fearless leader." she giggled uncontrollably and the rest of her team jumped in with her. Holding their sides, unable to hold in it under the weight of it.

Suki, on the other hand, did not find it amusing in the least. She'll admit, the Water Tribe boy was slightly attractive and strong. Strong headed also, pride oriented, chauvinistic, stubborn…but cute. She laughed nervously, "Girls, that's ridiculous."

The warriors all looked at one another, sharing glances, with smirks on their faces, "Oh my, you like him too!"

Suki opened her mouth to rebuttal when someone cleared their throat behind her. She whipped around, pulling her fans out and placing them in front of her body as a shield. She straightened her posture when she saw it was just the fool they were previously speaking about. "Sokka, what are you doing here?"

He entered the building and stretched, like he belonged here. "What are you ladies up to this fine evening? I do hope you won't be intimidated by me and my training. I know I can be overbearing when it comes to fighting. So don't let me distract you or anything." the arrogant fool stood there like he actually could do something to do them.

This angered Suki, who was he, but a Southern Water Tribe peasant, to tell them that he could beat them? A plan devised in her mind, "Oh, Sokka you're so right. I don't even know how we got the slip on you and captured you. Will you please show me some of your moves that are clearly better than ours?" she feigned sweetness. This otter penguin would be taught a lesson soon enough.

Sokka looked down, uncertain of what he should do. He wanted to show _Suki _how real warriors fought, but he knew he had no real training. His way of training was with a sword and a snowman. He looked back up and saw the smug red-head smiling, like she knew what he was thinking, "Of course."

He slowly took a step closer to the girl. She took one too. They stood face to face. Noses inches away. "I don't want to hurt you, but you've forced me to." he lashed out his arm to strike her, but she blocked it as though she was swatting at a fly. Effortlessly.

Sokka's fury began to build up. He would not be bested by a girl. Not again. He went all out on her. Striking left, right up and down. He went low and high. Hitting at her with his best, but every time he struck out his hand, she was always right there with a block that seemed to be other worldly. Almost as if she were reading his thoughts again. The 'fight' continued for several minutes, but Sokka couldn't take the humiliation anymore. He threw one last hit, she deflected it and sent him to the ground.

Suki looked down at him and smiled. "Your moves were…impressive…" she tried to hold back her laughter, but it was difficult, by now all the other warriors were doubled over in laughter.

Sokka bowed his head and rose to his knees, "You were right. Though you did not say it, I'm beneath you. Will you teach me?"

She considered this for several seconds, then nodded. "Of course."

§¨©ª

Aang was hanging out down in the village, where the statue of Kyoshi was being polished in honor of Aang's return to them. Katara looked out the window and saw that Aang was interacting with the girls who lived on Kyoshi Island.

She supposed she should be jealous. Or at least she knew Aang wanted her to be, but she just didn't feel anything. She did want to leave though. Aang was starting to get on her nerves with all his "I'm the Avatar. I'm so great." Me. Me. Me. That's it was with him ever since landing on the island.

She left their room and went down to the marketplace to buy food for their, hopefully, continuing journey. She wanted to leave today, to make their way to the Northern Water Tribe. Though she doubted that would happen. Aang was too busy playing the girl-crazed Avatar and Sokka was too busy playing bad-ass warrior.

"Katara! Katara! Watch this!" she knew exactly who was calling her name, and she knew she didn't want to look at him.

Aang, ecstatic at the new trick he had wanted to show her earlier, threw his hands in the air, parallel to one another. In between them were three marbles that he made turn in a circle rapidly.

Katara hardly looked him, her irritation for being here too long rising, "that's cool, Aang."

Aang's face fell, he turned and sulked away. She didn't see him leave, just felt his absent, but she didn't care. She finished her shopping and went back to their room. Waiting for the time they could leave.

§¨©ª

"Inform Prince Zuko that we know the location of the Avatar. Kyoshi Island."

§¨©ª

It had been a couple of days later when Sokka had finally been able to best Suki. Dressed in the traditional Kyoshi Warrior gown and make up, he fought her and won. She'd fallen to the ground with a satisfying thud.

Sokka hollered and hooted with victory, "I finally beat you!"

Suki stood and smiled, "or did I let you win because I'm sick of seeing your face everyday?" she taunted him while rubbing her backside.

Sokka's disappointment could be seen miles away, "You wouldn't do that?"

"Wouldn't I?" she asked him smugly.

He remained confused for several minutes. Then a look of complacent came over his features. "Whether you let me win or not, I'm still getting better." he smiled arrogantly.

Her mouth lifted slightly at the corners, "Yeah, I guess you are." she looked down at her boots. "So, Sokka, tell me about your family.?"

Sokka was taken back for a second. A minute they were fighting, the next she wants to talk about family? "Uh, well, when I was nine my mother was taken from me by the Fire Nation. My father left when I was thirteen to fight in the war. Since then it's just been my Gran Gran, my sister, and me. I grew up in the Southern Water Tribe, I was their last defense, but right now, there's no one there to protect my tribe. I was training some warriors, but they're from about seven to about nine. So they don't take it seriously." he chuckled slightly at the memories of the children urging him to 'show no fear' against the Fire Prince. He looked back up at Suki, "How about you?" he was staring into her blue green eyes and felt a part of him spark to life.

The red-haired warrior looked at him. At the only boy who made her feel like a girl. At the only boy she cared about, but she knew he would leave. Everyone always left her, "I've been training as a Kyoshi Warrior since I was eight years old. I don't have family. Well, actually I don't remember them. All I remember is first coming here when I was six and after that they just disappeared. All I have are the Kyoshi Warriors. They are my family now."

Sokka couldn't believe what he was hearing, yes he didn't have the biggest family, but at least he had his sister and grandmother. "Suki, I don't know what to say, but I am sorry. If it's any help, you're one of the strongest people I know. And absolutely beautiful and amazing."

Suki blushed and opened her mouth to say something back, but she was cut off when a scream erupted from outside, "What was that?"

The two warriors ran outside and saw the Fire Prince on the shores of the island. A trail of smoke and flames followed behind him. Houses were burning. Children were screaming and the land behind him was on fire. "Peasants! If you don't want your precious village to burn I suggest you tell me where the Avatar is!"

"Damn him. He's just not going to give it up." Sokka ran forth attempting to stop the Prince of Destruction. The prince did nothing but kick his foot out and send the boy, it was a boy right?, in a dress flying. He hit against a nearby building.

Suki grabbed Sokka's arms and dragged the foolish warrior out of harm's way. He was going to get himself killed one day. Suki's heart tore a little at that thought, but pushed it away.

§¨©ª

Aang and Katara got to the middle of the burning village at the same time. "How did he find us? I thought Suki said this place wasn't findable?" Katara yelled over the screams in Aang's direction, he just shrugged.

"I'm gonna go see if I can stop him." Aang set up his glider and took off toward the Exiled.

Zuko saw the Avatar. He was coming his. Finally he would capture him and go back home. The Avatar was flying, but his descent would come rather quickly. Zuko shot fireballs at the Airbender. The Avatar dodged them all but still landed, "Why are you doing this? Leave us alone!"

Zuko filled with rage, "How dare you try to command me! Do you know who I am? I will never stop tracking you until you are in shackles and in my possession." more fireballs shot from his hands. Aang sent them reeling back to their creator.

The banished prince knew this was a lose-lose fight. There was no way either one was going to give in. at least that's what he thought until he saw the dream that had haunted his thoughts deep within. The ocean eyed, sienna hair, sun tanned beauty. She was here. He if they knew about his fascination with her? Or did they just get lucky with timing? He'd never spoken friendly words with either of them, so they couldn't have known what effects she would have on him.

Well, they didn't until he lost focus and the Avatar blew a guest of wind that knocked him over. Zuko flipped back to his feet and started attacking again. This time the Avatar pulled back, but only by the hand of the Water Tribe girl. Zuko's temper flared. How dare he touch his Waterbender.

Katara grabbed hold of Aang's arm. She didn't want Aang to get hurt, but she also didn't want the Exiled hurt either. She didn't know why she felt that way. But if he was harmed she wasn't sure how she'd be able to handle it.

"Aang, let's just get out of here. They're destroying the village, but if we leave he will too. He doesn't the village, he wants you! Let's leave." Katara pleaded with her big blue eyes.

Aang couldn't resist it. He nodded his head, "Let's go."

§¨©ª

Sokka's head was starting to clear up. He opened his eyes and saw Suki's painted face. "What happened?"

She smiled at him, "Sokka, you need to get back to your friends and leave this place. The Kyoshi Warriors and I will hold him off while you guys escape."

He sat up and nodded realizing she didn't want him here anymore, "Alright." he pretended to think nothing of it. It was her choice.

Suki's eyes filled with disappointment at his callous behavior toward his departure. "that's all?" she asked incredulously.

Sokka's demeanor fell away to confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Don't you like me?" she asked with uncertainty.

"Well, yeah, but you're stronger than the girly feelings that liking someone comes with." he stated unhappily.

"Sokka, I may be a strong, independent fighter, but I do have those girly feelings." she slowly leaned forward and let her lips rest against his cheek.

She pulled back unsure of what she'd done, "you gotta leave now, Sokka." she stood, helping him up, she turned him around and pushed him forward.

He stumbled, but looked back at her, "Suki, I-" she cut him off with another push. This time it was hard and to his chest.

"LEAVE!" she didn't want him here. She didn't want him hurt. By either the Firebender or her.

Sokka knew something was wrong, but he also knew that trying to figure it out would be impossible. She wouldn't ever tell him. He took off running. He found Aang and Katara on Appa all ready for departure. He jumped on.

"Appa, yip, yip.". Aang looked down at the village. He saw it burning. All of it. He saw the Kyoshi Warriors fighting, some of the losing. He saw the Kyoshi statue turning to ash. Aang knew he had to do something. He lurched off Appa, free falling through the sky. He curled up and submerged into the water. Aang swam until he saw what he needed.

"AANG!" Katara leaned over the side of Appa, shouting. What was he thinking?

Minutes later, she saw what he was thinking. He emerged from the frigid water on the of the creature that had tried to eat him earlier.

Aang pulled on the Unagi making it spit water. He managed to put out all of the fires and drench the Exiled and his crew. Katara flew Appa low, catching Aang when he dived off the creature.

"I caused all of this, Katara." he huddled like a child against her side.

She comforted him, "no you didn't. It's okay, Aang, you saved the village."

Aang smiled, "you're right, thank you, Katara." he snuggled closer.

Sokka couldn't comprehend what had happened. All he knew was that he was never going to see Suki again and he missed her.


	4. Chapter 4

Imprisoned

If there was one think Uncle hated, it was his nephew's temper. He knew that, which was precisely why Zuko had taken quarters on the stern while the old man slept. His temper boiled over and Fire shot from all available openings. How could have been so asinine as to let the Avatar get away. It seemed to him that this hunt was going to be harder than he thought. Not only was his prey the one and only (well, for now) Avatar, but his companions consisted of an oaf of a warrior who happened to get lucky enough to hit something every once in a while. And, of course, the pleasurable little Waterbender.

He shook his head, clearing his mind, if he thought too much of her, he would be distracted and would want to think of nothing else. And he couldn't do that. Not right now.

The ground was shaking beneath them like the grounds would shake in the Southern Water Tribe when the Fire Nation beached on their shores. _Thump, thump._ Katara woke with a start and thought she was home again. Her body groaned with protest at the abrupt movements. It wasn't used to sleeping on the ground. Usually she lay atop stacks of blankets and animal hides. Traveling, all she had was a sleeping bag.

She rubbed her neck, wondering why she had woken in the first place anyway. Then she felt it again. The ground shaking and rumbling, she poked at until, with sleepy eyes and a vacant expression, Aang was up. He was about to say something when Katara held a finger to his lips. She told him to listen, "Do you hear it?"

Aang reluctantly moved away from Katara's touch, closed his eyes and listened. _Thump, thump. _"I do. What is it?" his curiosity getting the better of him.

Katara just shrugged, "I don't know, but I think we should go see."

Aang readily agreed and attempted to wake Sokka up. "Sokka, we gotta go. Something's out there, we need to see what it is."

Sokka peaked one blue eye out from under his sleeping bag. He mumbled something to them, "MghmghIdon'twannayoucan'tmakememghmgh." His sentence was incoherent, but the other two didn't care. They had to go see what it was out there and they weren't leaving Sokka behind.

An idea came to Katara, "Sokka, come on, I think someone has food over there!" she began jumping up and down. Aang would have joined in if it weren't for the glorious sight of Katara's breast moving at a fast rate. _Where did that come from?_ Aang mused, he'd never once before had such a thought. It both disturbed him and excited him. New things were hard to adjust to.

Sokka became conscience enough to know what 'food' meant: meat. He wasn't thrilled to be up, but he could bare it. "Alright, fine, let's go then."

Throughout the quest of getting Sokka awake, the noise had stopped. Katara grew frustrated. _Dammit, _she thought, _now we're never going to see what it was._

Sokka realized this too. He grumbled and was on his way back to bed, when the noise sounded again. _Thump, thump._ The trio ran in the direction the clamor was coming from. They arrived just in time to see a tall man with brown hair, Earthbending. She'd only seen Earthbending one other time, when they'd visited King Bumi, just days ago. This man seemed to be a beginner. He didn't seem to notice them since his back was turned to them. She decided to call out.

"Excuse me, mine names Katara, this is Aang and my brother Sokka-" she wasn't able to say anything more. The man dropped the rocks he'd been practicing with and ran away. No explanation just ran.

Katara looked to the other two, "What was that all about?"

The boys shrugged, "I don't know, but I doubt he came from the earth and if he was out here bending, that means there's a village nearby. We can supplies and food." Sokka seemed more awake now after their run in with the man.

Katara nodded, "You're probably right. Let's pack up and see what's out there."

They arrived at the small village half an hour later. Though Katara wouldn't really call it a 'village'. Usually little towns like this were teeming with people and talk. But there was nothing here. No people. No noise. No children playing. Nothing.

Katara turned to the boys, "What do you think this is all about?" she was genuinely confused.

The boys once again shrugged, they were useless!

Katara just looked at them with a dead expression, "seriously guys? No response, whatsoever?" they shook their heads, "Fine, let's go knock on someone's door and see if they know a place we can get supplies." she started for the first house she saw, then stopped. "maybe you should do it, Aang, you are the Avatar after all." Katara backed behind Aang and Sokka quietly.

Aang looked back her laughing, "Okay, Katara."

The Avatar knocked on the door. A green iris appeared through a little crack of the opened door. "what do you want?" the question came out as a low whisper.

Aang smiled widely, not noticing or not caring about the anger the woman seemed to be speaking with. "Hello, my name's Aang, me and my friends here were wondering if you knew a place where we could find food and supplies?" if it were possible, his smile got bigger.

The woman's eye narrowed, "Go away!" she slammed the door closed in Aang's face. He truly felt like she hadn't just slammed that door, but stabbed him in the heart.

He turned back to the others, "I don't think she was too happy about our visit." it was like he believed what had just happened was a surprise.

"Gee, Aang, really? You got that vibe, too?" Katara's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Yeah, I don't know what her problem is." he was oblivious to everything around him it seemed.

Katara shook her head. And he was supposed to save them from impending doom? They were all going to die. She rolled her eyes, and when they opened they landed on the man that they had seen earlier. "Hey, you, come back here!" she looked over at her brother and Aang. They were looking at her like she was crazy and she was looking at they as though they were stupid. Did they not understand who that was? "Guys, it's that Earthbender. Maybe he can help us." she ran after him, not bothering to see if the others were following her.

The Earthbender saw her coming and ran again. Katara was getting irritated, why couldn't he just slow down? All she wanted to do was talk to him. There was no way she was going to catch up to him. The Earthbender was much faster than her. _Damn, _she thought, _there goes the only way of getting food in this town._

She was slowing down subconsciously, she couldn't run anymore. They were gonna lose him. Aang proved her wrong the minute he flew over her ducked head. He shot Air Blasts at him and the bender went down smoothly. Katara regained minimal energy, but it was enough to catch up to Aang and the boy. "Why were you running?" Katara sputtered out the question.

He didn't answer for several minutes. Katara and Aang waited in silence. "Hey guys! Damn, you guys are fast!" Sokka had finally caught up with them.

Some groaning emerged from the bender. "What do you people want from me?" he rose from the ground and stood next to Katara.

"We just want to know a few things actually. One: where we can buy supplies. Two: where all the people are who live in this village. And three: why you were running from us." Aang tried to be menacing, but it was hard to take Aang serious when he had Momo perched on his head like a hat.

The man, in fact, laughed and seemed to visibly relax, "you can buy everything you need here. I'll show you. People are scared to come out of their homes. Firebenders run this town. I was running from you because you saw me…well…you know… Earthbending." he whispered his last few words so low that they had to lean in close to hear what he was saying.

Katara was confused, "Why can't you bend?"

He looked at her like she had lost her mind. "It's forbidden here. Firebenders don't want a rebellion on their hands. My name's Haru by the way."

"I'm Katara, this is Aang and the oaf is Sokka-"

"Hey, Katara, that's mean!" Sokka yelled.

Katara didn't pay him any attention, "That's terrible. People shouldn't be tied down like that at all. That's just cruel and unusual punishment to do to someone. It's like taking away someone's freedom and right to be who they are. It's down right fucked up." Katara worked herself into a rage.

Aang looked as though he didn't understand something. "Katara, I completely agree with you. But what does that word mean 'fucked'? Or, for that matter any of those words you and Sokka have been saying. It is odd and confusing." he scratched his head in a way that said he really was left in the dark about all this

Katara laughed manically, "Oh, Aang, I'm sorry. I usually don't talk like that. It's language we've picked up from the Fire Nation soldiers, when they came to raid our shores. What I just said was foul and rank. I'm sorry I said it at all. But we need to focus on getting supplies." Katara quickly changed the topic.

Aang nodded earnestly, as though he knew what she was saying made sense. "So, Haru, right? Where do we get supplies?"

Haru kept looking at Katara, "I'll show you, but I need someone to go back to my house, it was one where the woman slammed the door on you, and take care of my mother and tell her that I'm okay."

Aang didn't like the way Haru was watching Katara, but it seemed like the Waterbender wasn't paying attention to the Earthbender. She seemed like she was genuinely upset about the Earthbenders not being able to bend their Element. "yeah, sure that sounds like a good idea. We'll go talk to her and Katara can go with you to buy everything. She knows what we need the most."

Katara looked up at Aang, confused, "Um, okay, I guess. Let's go Haru." she left with the Earthbender.

Aang with a heavy heart and sad eyes watched Katara walk away with a potential threat to his love life. He laughed sarcastically, he didn't have a love life, he only wished he did. Especially, with that enticing Waterbender.

"So, Haru, I'm sorry about your father, that's terrible. I haven't seen my father in two years, but now that I've heard you're life story and I've told you mine and we have the supplies, so I think we should get back and try to find Aang and Sokka. They'll be worried about me." she lifted one of the bags higher on her hip.

Haru laughed, "do you need help with those?" he stretched out his hands to catch anything if it fell.

"No, I have it all, thanks anyway." as she adjusted her bags again a scream erupted from nearby. "what was that?"

Haru shrugged, "let's go find out?" he phrased it as a question, but he didn't wait for Katara to answer. He took off running.

Knowing that she would never be able to catch up if she wondered about what to do, she dropped her bags and followed him quickly. She pushed herself to keep up with the Earthbender, it seemed much easier to do so this time and she wasn't sure why. She felt a new strength enter her body and her legs acted as though they had a mind of their own. Katara was reveling in the feel of her muscle when she ran into Haru's back.

"Oompf, ugh, Haru, what just happened?" she rubbed her head and peeked over his shoulder. Beneath a boulder was a fragile old man.

"Help me! Please, someone help me!" he held his hand out. His body was being crushed beneath the rock. "Help!"

Katara waited for Haru to move. She knew he could help him, but he didn't budge. Not one inch. "Haru, aren't you going to help me? You can just bend the rock off him. Do it!" she didn't understand.

The Earthbender looked back at her, "Are you stupid? I can't. Earthbending is illegal here. What you saw in the woods was wrong. I can't do it." he averted his eyes.

She rushed to the man's aid, Katara grew angry . Who was he to say that his own well being was more important than the well being of an elderly man who was in need. Arrogant child. She futilely began to remove the rock from the old man's back. Oh, who was she kidding? She wasn't an Earthbender. She was barely a Waterbender. She couldn't move these things even if she pretended she was.

She looked to Haru one more time for help. He stared back, he wasn't going to help her, Katara knew it. The old man was going to die, because Haru was scared. He was pathetic, Katara again tried to help, she knew it was useless, she reached her arms under the rock and lifted. It rose into the air without much strain on her part. _What the hell?_

Katara looked behind her and saw Haru bending the very Earth she was previously trying to move. She grinned, "Haru, you're an amazing Earthbender! I knew you could do it!" she tugged the man out of the way and put his arm around her shoulder. "Sir, are you okay?"

He looked at her like she was something foreign, "Get off me!" he pushed Katara away and ran toward the village.

Katara looked over at Haru confused, "what was that all about?" he shrugged, "hey, look I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I didn't mean to pressure you, but I'm really glad you helped." she smiled shyly and hugged the other bender. He wrapped his arms around her.

Katara began to pull away, but Haru pulled her closer. Too close, "Haru, what are you do-" she wasn't able to finish, Haru was kissing her. Uncertain of what to do, she pushed him away and put her hands up to fend him off, "What was that?"

He looked both pleased and abashed, "I…uh…thought you…you know… liked me?" he rubbed his head in an awkward way.

She felt guilt fill her being. "Oh, Haru, I'm sorry. Um…no. I don't like you. I didn't mean to make you think that. But thank you again for helping me. I'll see you tomorrow." she followed the old man's lead and ran. She found her abandoned bags and went back to the village to find Aang and Sokka.

"Thank you so much for letting us stay here for the night." Aang told the same woman and who slammed the door on his face. She nodded slightly to them and left the barn where the Avatar and the others were staying for the night.

Katara laid down on the hay and yawned, tonight she would sleep good. "alright, guys, I think we should get some shut eye. We got a long day ahead of us. Walking. As usual."

Silence greeted her, "Guys?" no answer.

She lifted her head up and looked around. Both boys were laying at her feet in a pile of arms and legs. Out for the count. She laughed silently to herself. "Good night and sweet dreams." she sent the words up to the sky. To Tui and La. To the stars and moon. To anyone who needed the well wish.

A whisper on the wind brushed his cheek, chilling him slightly. He embraced the cold. He didn't have a big tolerance for the crisp air, but he was getting used to it more and more each day. It was biting and bitter, but made him wake up.

They had left Kyoshi Island weeks before and were somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. He knew they were on the trail of the Avatar and were getting closer to him. But their route was going to be postponed for a bit. They were expected at a nearby mining rig for unknown reasons. All he knew was that Uncle wanted them to stop at the mining rig to visit someone.

He left the stern and walked around the ship, unsure of what to do. This was the second night he wasn't able to sleep properly. At least not without thinking about the water nymph. His Acqua Ninfa. "Aargh," he wasn't going to get anything done if he didn't take his mind off that troublesome girl.

Zuko went back to his rooms and laid upon his bed, his head resting on his pillow. One day he would have her and he wouldn't have to think about not thinking about her. He would just have to turn over and she would be there, smiling at him with her luscious lips.

"No, bring him back! He didn't do anything wrong. He's just a boy!" a high pitched screech came from inside the house.

Katara shot up, she shook the others awake. "Aang, come on, someone's yelling for help!" Aang and Sokka came to and they ran into the house.

On the floor was Haru's mother she was crying on her knees. "What happened?" Katara joined her and asked, worriedly.

The woman cried earnestly, "They took my baby! They took him away from me! He couldn't have done anything wrong! My baby! Please, you must help me!"

Katara was confused, Haru was taken away by the Fire Nation? "Why did they take him?" Haru was a good person, not one who should taken away.

Crying still, she explained that the Fire Nation came to their early in the morning, "An older man was with them. He said he caught Haru Earthbending. I don't understand! Haru knows better than to do that. Please help!"

She gripped Katara's clothes. Pulling her closer to the older woman, she buried her face into Katara's shoulder. Katara pat the women's arm and back. The mother was breaking down in Katara's lap.

She was mortified. The old man she had pressured Haru into Earthbending and saving. She had been the one to get Haru arrested. "where did they take him?"

The older woman mumbled something incoherent. Katara leaned down and heard the words 'mining rig' escape her lips.

Katara had been the one to put Haru into jail. She had done this to him. Guilt coursed through her, she felt it eating at her stomach. "don't worry, we'll get him out." she stood from her position and walked outside with the boys following closely behind.

"Katara, what are we going to do? Why are you so upset?" Sokka's concern was real, but it was concern for her, not for the man she had sent away.

"Sokka, it's my fault he's there. I made him Earthbend. So I have got to help him get out of that mine. He doesn't deserve to be in there!" Katara cried out.

Sokka placed both his hands on Katara's shoulders, "calm down, Katara, don't worry. We'll get him out." he smiled at her brotherly.

"But how?" Aang's voice chirped up from the ground, where he sat with Momo sleeping in his lap.

Katara looked to him, "I hadn't thought of that." she rubbed her neck, uncertain of what to do now.

Sokka's face lit up, "I got it!"

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Katara's voice held utter disbelief.

Sokka's excitement was palpable, but Katara just couldn't feed off of it. She knew this wasn't going to work. **B**ut, reprimanded herself, she had to have at least a little faith.

"Yes, Katara, I am positive that this will work and work damn good. So when I yell out something along the lines of 'Earthbending' Aang will blow wind up through the vents sending the rock into the air. Then the soldiers will see it and put you in the same prison Haru's in. Hopefully. After you get him out, we'll come for you tonight. He better be ready, Katara. 'Cause we're leaving with or without him. Understand?" he was firm with her, knowing, she had a hard time listening and taking orders.

Katara nodded, he was serious, "alright, let's do this!"

"Guards! Guards help! That young woman's Earthbending!" Sokka's voice rang out loud and clear in the sky.

That was the cue. Katara looked over her shoulder and saw Aang. He was crouched behind a crate. He nodded and blew a gust of wind through a vent. The boulder in front of Katara began to rise. She lifted her arms as though she was an Earthbender. Shouts came from her right.

They rushed her. For a split second, Katara had the urge to fight back, but had to calm herself down, _You want to get caught, remember? _The reminder flinted across her brain.

They grabbed both her arms and thrust her hands behind her back "you know the rules! No Earthbending! It's off to the mining rig for you, little girl."

Katara looked back and nodded to her boys. She would see them tomorrow night. And if she didn't have Haru with her she would have to leave him behind.

The mining rig wasn't what she expected it to be. The rig smelt of coal. Fire, smoke, everything seemed to have a burning smell to it. The rig was isolated and depressing. The prisoners were lifeless and it was no surprise, these people had their lives taken away from them. Their bending was prohibited and no one did anything to help them. They didn't do anything to help themselves. It was disgusting. She wanted to do something, but knew that her first priority was getting Haru out. The guards pushed her roughly into the yard where other prisoners spent free time.

Katara's eyes searched the area, looking for the dark haired Earthbender. But Haru was nowhere in sight. What if he wasn't here after all? This whole… mission… would have been for nothing. Dammit. Little black dots began to appear in her vision. _No, dammit, come on, he's gotta be here somewhere._ She walked around the yard across one side to the other, nothing.

Just when Katara was about to give up, she saw him. He was amongst a group of elderly men. She silently walked up to him, and knelt beside him, "Haru?"

He turned his head, startled. "Katara?" he seemed both ecstatic and confused. "What are you doing here? How did you get placed on the rig?"

Katara explained everything to him. "So, we need to be ready to leave by tonight. Meet me on the top where that little pointy thing is where we can see everything."

He laughed, "you mean the crow's nest?"

Katara looked at him like she could care less. "yeah, sure, whatever, that thing."

The laughing stopped, in lieu of it was silence. Gut wrenching silence. "Haru? You will meet me there won't you?"

He looked up at her, "I can't Katara, I found my dad, Tyro. Dad this is Katara." she kindly shook Tyro's hand. "I can't leave him. Not again." his voice cracked. This was hard for him but he had to come with her.

"Haru, come on, we'll get him out of here too." Katara looked at Haru with pleading eyes, "I can't let you stay here any longer. This place isn't good, please?"

He bowed his head and spoke in soft tones, "If we can get my dad out, then I'll go to, but I don't think he's going to come with us, Katara." Haru looked to his father and whispered in his ear, not wanting anyone to hear his secrets.

Haru's father reared back, appalled, he shook his head vigorously, "No, Haru, no. We cannot. It's too much to try and escape. There's no point. Truly, there isn't. I will hear no more on this matter. The only way to survive is to do what we're told and hope the war goes in our favor." he looked away from his son.

Haru stood up and steered Katara to the other side of the yard. "I can't leave without him, but I want to get out of here. Maybe we could rally up the other Earthbenders and start a rebellion against the Firebenders?"

Katara didn't think it was going to work, the Earthbenders were many, but there was no Earth around for miles. They were in the middle of the ocean. "I don't know, Haru, I just don't know, but we'll figure it out. I promise." she got an idea, "Maybe we can give them hope."

Confusion was written all over Haru's face. "what are you talking about?"

Katara grinned widely, "You'll see."

Katara hopped onto a huge crate, a pot and lid in hand, she looked out over the sea of Earthbenders. This was it. It was either now or never. Katara's breathing became ragged, she had to motivate these people to stand up for their lives and take back what is theirs. "Earthbenders! That is what you are isn't? Isn't it?" a few heads nodded in a scattered pattern. "Then why do you not act like Earthbenders? Why do you instead act like a tiny insect at the mercy of a Firebenders shoe? You are all so much stronger than that! Take back what is yours! Take back your bending! Take back your life! They cannot take from you what is as necessary as breathing. Your bending is in your entire being. Why is it okay for them to take your soul away? Who are they, but another Elemental bender? They are not better than you, they do not control you! Take back your lives!" Katara was out of breath from the excitement of talking in front of crowds. She felt she had done a good enough job at speaking. So why? Why did these strong Earthbenders just lower their heads and turn away?

Haru caught her eye, he nodded his head in another direction. She looked up and saw the Warden staring down at her with an arrogant grin on his face. His guards were stationed all around, ready to attack her if her speech had the desired effect. The Warden laughed and went back into his rooms. Katara jumped from her perch.

She met Haru, "it didn't work." she felt her heart tearing slightly.

He put a hand on her shoulder, "no it didn't, but if it's any help. I liked your speech a lot." he smiled, trying to get her to crack her own smile.

She did, "Thanks, Haru." Night had fallen, "Aang and Sokka are going to be here soon, I have to tell them we need one more day. I'll be back." Haru nodded and walked back to his father. Getting the older bender to fight back wasn't going to be easy. But if they wanted to get off this wretched rig, they needed him.

Aang and Sokka sat in Appa's saddle, waiting for the third member of their group, "where is she, Sokka?" the Airbender was getting worried.

Sokka looked over his shoulder, searching, "I don't know, Aang. I don't see her anywhere… wait! I think I see her." a dark braid swung against blue clothes, "yep, that's her. Fly higher!"

Katara hopped down a platform and landed on another, "guys, we can't leave! I know you want to get out of here, but I can't go. Haru wants to go, but he found his father. Tyro won't leave, he doesn't think there's a chance in hell of escaping. These Earthbenders need to get out. We have to help them." she pleaded with them silently. Knowing Sokka would be the most difficult to persuade.

Katara held her breath, she waited for what seemed like hours, but he finally nodded, "alright, we'll figure something out." Katara nodded and Aang agreed.

Silence again blessed them, until the Airbender shot up from his laying position, "I know exactly what we can do!"

"WHAT?" the siblings asked in unison.

Aang grinned, he loved having the power of keeping them interested, "How about this? What if we use the coal that the Firebenders use for fuel? Coal is a form of Earth. We can use the same trick we did to get Katara arrested. What do ya think?"

Katara just stared at him. Was the idea that stupid? Aang began to feel awkward and out of place, but slowly, slowly, her face broke into a smile. "Aang, you're a genius! That'll work out perfectly. Tomorrow, midday. I'll see you then." She waved goodbye, jumped on the platform and hiding in the darkness, she ran back to her cell.

Aang stared at her retreating backside. This Waterbender was going to be the death of him.

The sun was beating down on the Firebenders. It warmed them fully, inside and out. Iroh saw the rig in the distance. It was neither near nor far. Near enough to see. Far enough to wonder if they'd ever make it there. He sighed, his nephew was getting restless. He could hear Zuko behind him. Pacing, randomly shooting a fire ball into the open sky. The Avatar hunting was becoming tedious and it was taking its toll on his nephew. Zuko _felt _it was his destiny to capture the Avatar. But Iroh _knew _his nephew was destined for something far much greater.

"Uncle, how much further until we reach the mining rig? We have to get back to hunting. This is a waste of our time and I am not happy about this at all." Zuko's voice carried far.

Iroh chuckled softly, "Prince Zuko, you are never happy, so why does it matter?"

The banished Prince yelled out his frustration. Iroh just continued his ocean viewing. This side-line trip wasn't just for nothing. There was some purpose to it. He just wasn't sure what it was yet. But deep down, he knew that for some reason going to the mining rig would help Zuko in some way. And if he could help his nephew in any way, then Iroh would not hesitate.

They were all on the deck, waiting for the Warden to put them to work. Katara needed to only wait for a few more minutes. Then she would be getting these enslaved Earthbenders out. She looked to her left, searching for Haru. A few people down and he was there. She told him of their plan the night before. She nodded and he returned it. She heard Appa growl. On her right, she saw Sokka jumped onto the rig. "You ready for this?" she nodded.

It was time. She had to try to motivate them one more time. One more speech. With her pot and lid in hand, she clanked them together. Earthbenders looked to her, "I'm asking you help us! Help yourselves!" they did nothing.

The Warden came onto the deck at that moment, "Who is this?" he was angry.

"We are Katara and Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. And we are here to free these Earthbenders." Katara stood tall.

The Firebender laughed, "You will do no such thing. You will surrender or die." He stood in a fighting stance.

Sokka pulled his sword from his sheath. Katara did the same, pulling minimal water from the ocean with her in her own stance, "Now, Aang! Do it now!" Burning coal flew through a vent. It scattered across the deck, littering it. "Now is your chance to fight! Don't let this man run your life!"

Nothing happened. No Earth being thrown, no shouts of agreement. Nothing. The Warden laughed cruelly, "There is not a thing you can say to them to get them to do anything. Their spirits were broken a long time ago." He deemed the Water Tribesmen non-threatening and walked away.

Aang finally joined them, but it didn't help. Katara's own spirit broke. They really weren't going to do anything to help themselves. This was the end for them. Sokka pulled on her sleeve, willing her to follow. She took one step and heard a yell. She turned around and saw the Warden rubbing the back of his head. At his feet was a small piece of coal.

She looked to the Earthbenders. Haru was standing at the forefront, three small rocks were circling in his hand. Elated, she shouted her joy for that one movement of life.

Growling, the Warden shot Fire lit his hands, "You will pay for that, you piece of shit Earthbender." The Fire shot from his hands, aiming for Haru.

Katara's breath stopped. He was going to die; her Waterbending wasn't strong enough to stop the attack. "Haru!"

Inches away from his face the Fire stop. Confused, Katara saw that his father, Tyro, and two more Earthbenders had deflected the threat. With Earthbending. "We will not be treated like insects, anymore!"

With only that as their warning, the Earthbenders fought back. A flurry of Earth, Fire, Water and Air surrounded the oxygen of the rig. Although, the Fire was strong and vicious, the others didn't back down. Katara did all she could with her Waterbending. Aang did ten times more damage than she thought was possible. Sokka tried his damnedest to do something helpful for them. The Earthbenders were amazing, it seemed as though their pent up rage and isolation reared its head and fought like wild Saber-tooth Moose-lions.

The battle lasted only minutes, the Firebenders retreated and the Warden was thrown overboard with a satisfying splash. "Earthbenders! We are going home and taking back our villages!" a victory screech roared from the crowd. "We must board the Fire Nation ships. Now!"

Soon lines were formed, and the ships were commandeered. They would be sailing back to their homes. Katara couldn't help smiling, couldn't help, but feel that she was the cause of all this. She met Haru's eyes one last time. He made his way through the crowd, giving her a huge any Armadillo-bear would have been proud of. "Thank you so much, Katara, you have no idea what you have done for them. For us. For Earthbenders. You're an inspiration and we'll never lose sight of hope because of you. Thank you." He pulled back and smiled.

She smiled back, wondering why she didn't feel anything for this young man. For someone strong and sensitive. "You truly are wonderful, Haru. I hope all goes well for you and your father."

"Don't you worry about that, little lady, I'll take damn good care of him. And myself." Startled, by the booming voice, Katara jumped. "As he said, thank you, Katara. We'd be nowhere without you. Now, come on, Haru, I'm sure your mother will be worried-sick." He laughed softly.

"Good-bye, Katara."

"Good-bye, Haru." It was sad; she would probably never see these magnificent, strong-willed Earthbenders again.

Haru and his father board the ships and set sail. She waved and until they were little, black spots. "Katara, come on, it's time we got going too." Aang and Sokka were in the saddle ready to go.

She smiled and gamboled in, settling next to her brother, they flew off into the sun. "Where to next?"

"There's a beautiful forest I want you guys to see. It's close by." Aang sat upon Appa's head, with the reigns in hand.

Katara looked up at Sokka, he shrugged. "Alright then, let's go guys." She touched her throat out of habit. Nothing was there. Her mother's necklace was gone. It was back on the burning ship. Back in the ruble. Back where she wouldn't get it. "Mom's necklace is lost."

Iroh and Zuko arrived on the broken and beaten rig, "what happened here?" Zuko asked aloud.

"I'm not sure, but whatever it was, I don't think the Fire Nation won this battle." Iroh peeked over the side and saw the Warden of the ship latching onto a ladder.

"No, I don't think they did, but I think we might have our own little victory." Zuko dropped down to his haunches and picked up a necklace. It looked like a Water Tribe necklace.

Iroh came next to him and touched it lightly, "Where have I seen this before?"

Zuko smiled coldly, "On the little Water Tribe girl." On _his _little Water Tribe girl. Finally he had something that would get him close to her. He supposed this out of the way detour wasn't a complete waste of time.


	5. Chapter 5

The Waterbending Scroll

"This is just not going to work! Roku said that I needed to learn all the elements by the end of summer! All because of some…some…stupid comet!" she watched Aang hit his fist against the saddle of Appa.

Katara patted the back of the Avatar, trying her best to comfort him. "Aang, we will figure this all out. There hasn't been anything that stopped us, yet, right?"

Aang's voice was small, weak, "right…"

The Waterbender looked away, sad about being unable to help her friend when he needed her. Or could she? "I think I may have an idea! What if I tried to teach the basics in Waterbending?" she watched the changes on Aang's face occur. "I mean, I only know the bare minimum, but it's better than nothing at all, don't you think?" she smiled widely.

"You would really help me, Katara?" he asked energetically, jumping up and down in his spot on the saddle.

She smiled warmly, "Of course, Aang. I'll show you everything I know." she rubbed his head for good luck and turned to Sokka, who had hold of the reins. "Sokka, can you land at the first body of water you see. Please?"

He looked back at his sister, "Well, since you asked so nicely…" he grinned and lowered Appa to the ground and landed.

Katara and Aang clambered out of Appa's saddle and walked to the small stream. "Alright, Aang, do as I do. Okay?" Katara firmly planted her feet into the ground. Aang nodded and followed suit.

"Good. Now move your arms like this." Katara changed her limbs to a different position. "Now, move them this way and that way." she explained, gliding her arms through the air. "Now, back and forth." she demonstrated her movements. "Now, left and right." Katara slid her arms around like water. "Great, you're getting a hold of it quickly, Aang." A little too quickly, she thought. "Okay, let's try something else. This one I taught myself." she pulled her arms close to her body and thrust them outward. Creating a small wave. Though no one could exactly call it a wave. It was more like a splash.

The bald monk began to laugh excitably and tried the same movements. The only difference between his wave and her splash was exactly that. He seemed to have mastered the small technique in a snap. "Katara, this is so much fun. I think I'm really getting a hold of it."

The Waterbender fumed, "Great. You're a natural." she said nastily, sarcasm dripping from her every word.

And yet again, the Avatar was oblivious to her anger. He continued to bend the water, "Watch, Katara!" he raised his hands high above his head and brought them down low, resulting in a massive wall of water to come crashing down. It washed away the supplies lying on the shore.

Sokka's shriek pierced their ears, "That was all the food, sleeping bags and clothes we had! What are we going to do now?" he ran up beside the two benders. "Look at what you're stupid magic did!"

Katara turned to her brother, "IT'S NOT MAGIC! IT'S BENDING!" she huffed angrily then tried to regain her composure, "Sorry, I guess we'll just have to go to the next town and get more stuff." she stomped her way back to Appa and climbed in the saddle.

§¨©ª

"Uh…Nephew, it seems I have a problem. It is apparent that I have lost my White Lotus piece to my Pai Sho game. I cannot continue our journey until I have, Zuko. We must go back to the last town and see if they have an extra piece."

"Are you kidding me, Uncle? We have to go! The Avatar is already way ahead of us. We need to catch up!" Zuko was exasperated with his uncle. They needed to leave and find the Avatar. Quickly.

"No, Prince Zuko, I must go! We must go! Turn the ship around!" Iroh stomped to the captain's quarters to inform the captain of their new destination.

Zuko yelled out a frustrated growl, venting with smoke through his nose and mouth, Zuko angrily allowed him.

Iroh calmly turned around to Zuko, "It's so good to have an understanding nephew,"

Zuko's smoke engulfed the bridge as he walked across the ship's deck, following his uncle to make sure he didn't send them all the way back to the Southern Water Tribe.

§¨©ª

"Guys, look at this neat thing I bought!" Aang exclaimed as he put a white bison whistle to his mouth and blew it.

Katara and Sokka looked around waiting for some incredible to happen. Nothing did, "Uh, that's real nice, Aang. Sokka, after all the food we bought, do you know how much money we have left from King Bumi?"

The Watertribesman looked to his sister, "Aang has the money remember?"

Katara looked to the bald monk, "Well, Aang, how much do we have?"

The Avatar scoured through his side pouch and smiled. Pulling his hand out he opened it to reveal three copper pieces. Aang laughed nervously at the lack of money. "I guess the bison whistle cost more than I thought it did." he smiled crookedly and put his arm behind his head in embarrassment.

Sokka threw his arms up in anger, "Great! This is just great! Now we don't have anymore money! How are we going to survive! This is your fault, monk! You spent all of our money on some useless piece of wood!" he walked up to Aang, getting in his face, screaming and yelling.

Aang shrank back from the yelling Watertribesman, "Sokka, I'm sorry."

From where Katara stood, it didn't look like Sokka was going to let up, "Hey, Sokka, leave him alone. Alright, it was jut an accident. Remember, he's only a child." she pulled her brother off the young monk.

Sokka looked abashed, "You're right, Katara." his eyes couldn't seem to stay in one place. "Sorry, Aang." the Avatar nodded his acceptance. "Guys, look! This ship looks good. Let's see what they have there!"

Katara's eyes followed in the direction of Sokka's pointing finger. A large ship was docked at the harbor. Outside was a man trying to attract his business. "COME ONE COME ALL! GET AN EYEFULL OF OUR NEW ITEMS! THEY WILL DAZZLE YOUR MIND!" Not having to be told twice, Sokka took off running toward the barker.

The Waterbender looked to Aang, "What do you think, Aang?"

He nodded rapidly, "Yeah, let's go see what they have." he started to run after Sokka, but Katara grabbed him by the back of his tunic, "Hold on, there, Aang. Maybe I should take the rest of that money?"

Aang looked down at his hand, still grasped around the three copper pieces, "Yeah, you're probably right, Katara." she smiled and he dropped the coins into her open hand. He turned away and followed her brother. "Oh, how impolite." she said to herself with just a hint of anger in her voice. But she walked after them.

They entered the ship to see items beyond any of their comprehension. Things that shone as bright as the moon. Things that were as fluid as the ocean. Things from all over the world. From all four nations.

"This place is…wow… just wow. Look at all these things. Where do you think they get all this stuff?" Katara ran her hand over tea sets, jewelry, and many other items. Reveling in the cool touch of the treasures.

"High risk tradin'." Katara whipped her head around searching for the source of the unknown voice.

Her blue eyes met the golden brown eyes of a pirate captain. He stank of stale alcohol and filth. His teeth were rotting in his mouth, they possessed a yellow tint with dark spots in random places. His hair was a mass of gray. On his shoulder sat a reptile bird. He was truly a disturbing sight to see.

She smiled as politely as she could, "Oh, how interesting…" she moved away from the pirate captain slowly. Pulling her mind away from the creeper, she focused her attention on the treasures in front of her. Scrolls. She picked one up and unrolled it.

Katara's eyes widened slightly at her discovery. It was a scroll for Waterbending. A beginners training scroll. "Aang, Sokka, come here, look what I found."

The boys came over to her, peering over her shoulder Aang asked, "What is it?"

Katara snickered, "Can't you tell? It's a training scroll for Waterbenders. See look," she pointed to the drawings. Explaining what each person in a stance meant. "I wonder how much it is."

The Waterbender walked to the pirate, "Excuse me, sir, how much is this?"

The captain snatched the scroll from her hands, "Not for sale, it's on reserve for a very wealthy client in the Earth kingdom."

"Oh…" Katara's disappoint seeped through her pores.

"Though, if ye could make a better offer. I might be obliged to take ye up on that." the captain rubbed his two fingers together in a greedy manner. "Two hundred gold pieces, too be exact."

Katara held up her finger, "could you excuse me for a second?" he nodded and Katara turned toward her comrades, "Well, we don't have that kind of money. Damn."

Aang laughed, "Don't worry, Katara, I'll handle this. Pirates love to haggle." he made his way to the front of the group and slammed one copper piece on the table before him. "How about just one copper piece instead?"

The pirate looked at him as though he were certifiably insane, "I think not, ye bald one. Nice try though."

"You drive a hard bargain, pirate. Alright, fine then, two copper pieces." Aang raised his eyebrows.

The captain seemed to become enraged, "Get ye asses out of my store." the reptile bird on his shoulder squawked its irritation. Aang laughed nervously and the three travelers ran from the store.

Once they were safely away from them, Katara let out a giggle, "Stupid pirates, they didn't even notice they I took the scroll." she pulled it from her tunic and held it up proudly with a smug grin on her face.

Sokka looked at his sister, shocked, "Katara! You stole that! What if they come after us?"

She looked down, ashamed, "I hadn't thought of that. But they won't even notice it's gone. They're too stupid to realize it's gone."

"Do you not see how much danger you could put us in with that little stunt, Katara?" Sokka was fuming at his sister for her stupidity, "You know, this whole time, I thought I was the stupid one between us." he walked away from her.

"Oh, come on, Sokka. It's not that bad. Really, it's not." Katara tried like hell to get her brother to come back to her, but he never did.

Not until he heard screams and shouts coming from the opposite side of the Earth Kingdom village. He hid behind a nearby storage room and poked his head out. The pirates were running toward them with sharp swords, "Dammit, Katara. I told you this would end badly. Now we have pirates after us, along with the Fire Nation. Come on, we have to get out of here." he grabbed hold of Katara's hand who took Aang's hand and the three children ran into a forest with a small stream nearby.

Katara had become breathless, "Sokka. Sokka, I think that we lost them. Let's camp here for the night. Okay?"

"No, not okay. They're after us because of you. How is this at all okay?" her brother's temper was really coming out today.

"Sokka, I know you're mad, but let's just keep the scroll. Both Aang and I could learn from this. Please, we need this." Katara all but pouted to get her brother to soften up.

It worked, "Fine, Katara. Fine."

Katara squealed and threw her arms around her brother, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she backed away and looked at Aang, "So, Aang, are you ready to try and learn some real Waterbending skills?" he nodded eagerly. She smiled, "Let's go then."

§¨©ª

"Uncle, can we please hurry up and find your damn Pai Sho piece? We need to get back on the water." unfortunately, he thought to himself.

"Zuko, my nephew, I'm trying. But it seems that none of the merchants in this town are in possession of the White Lotus tile. But on the other hand we have many more instruments for music night on the ship." Zuko watched three of his men carrying huge loads of nonsensical things.

"Uncle, we need to leave now. We must find that bald, blue arrowed, monk!" Zuko tried to push his uncle toward the ship.

"A bald, blue arrowed, monk, huh? Now, that sounds like the same kid we be lookin' fer." the exiled prince turned around to see a pirate staring at him with a grin on his face, "'im and his two friends stole something from me that is very valuable. Why are ye lookin' fer 'im?"

Zuko's eyes narrowed, "Why I am in search for him is none of your business. But I think we can help each other out here."

The captain smiled and nodded viciously.

§¨©ª

Hours later and Katara was throwing the scroll down in anger and disappointment. "I don't understand why I can't get this Water Whip technique to work, but you can!" she crossed her arms and sat herself on a rock.

Aang rested his hand atop her shoulder. "It's nothing, really, Katara. It's probably because I'm already an Airbender so I have experience with bending. I'm sure you'll get it soon."

This only fueled her jealousy, "You know, maybe you are right, Aang. I'm done using the scroll, you can use it from now on. It's yours." with nothing else to say to him, she left him standing alone with darkness quickly falling.

With the scroll in hand, Aang hung his head. Why was she getting angry at him for being who he was? It wasn't his fault he was the Avatar born to be master of all four elements. Oh and of course to save the world. His pain for her anger got the best of him and he left the scroll on the same rock Katara sat on, knowing full well that she would want to use it again.

§¨©ª

Night had fallen over the campsite and Katara felt it was safe to run to the stream. She had hoped she remembered the stances that would help her learn the Water Whip. She listened for any sounds that would tell her that she was being followed, but all she heard was her feet in the gravel. Kicking up rocks. She pushed herself harder, she had to get to the stream soon.

Katara reached the water's shore and sat down to regain her breath, but she jumped back up when something poked her. She looked down to see the Waterbending scroll. Aang left here? Why would he be so irresponsible? Another thought hit her. He didn't leave it on accident, he left it on purpose. Knowing full well that she would come back for it.

She smiled to herself, figures the Avatar would know that about her. Katara let out a huff of air. "Time to get to work." she unrolled the scroll and practiced.

Several minutes passed before she felt like giving up again. "Come on, Katara. You are the only Waterbender in the entire Southern Water Tribe. You can do this. Just one more time." she brought her arms in and out for the final time and created an elongated shape of water and snapped it successfully. "Yes! I did it!" she jumped up and down in joy, laughing.

"Yes, you did do it, water peasant, but will it be enough to stop the big, bad, Fire Prince?" the jeer came to her ears in a tone so cruel and yet pleasant that it could only belong to one person. The exiled prince.

She turned to face him so fast, her braid whipped her back. "What do you want?" Katara decided to play it brave and dangerous, "Not like it matters anyway, I could take you."

The Exiled laughed with such malice it sent shivers up her spine, maybe she was playing it stupid. He was after all a fire prince, he'd been taught his whole life to control his element. Whereas, Katara could barely do a Water Whip.

"Oh, little one, I don't think you could. Get her." he smiled and Katara's stomach twisted. He was much more attractive up close. A specimen of man that had her biting her lip and wanting to do things she didn't even know she knew.

Katara's thoughts were continuing to spiral when a pirate that was with Zuko came out from the shadows and roughly grabbed her. He threw her over his shoulders like she was nothing. "Let me go you vile beast!"

Again, Zuko laughed, "Don't worry, we will put you down soon enough." he proceeded to walk deeper into the forest that surrounded them. "You can set her down here." he dropped the Waterbender to the ground. She hit with a thud and a groan. Without realizing it she tried to run, but Zuko grabbed her by her wrist. That one touch sent her body into hyper drive. She had never felt anything like it before. A tingling sensation worked its way up her arm, shoulder, past her breasts and into her stomach where it warmed her entirely.

He pulled her against his chest and growled, "I'll take care of the rest. You should go retrieve your crew."

Katara watched the pirate run back to the body of water to get the rest of his clan. She turned her attention away from the retreating pirate to the Exiled. He had pulled rope from his belt without her being aware of any of it. "Now, be a good little water peasant and don't move." he sneered the words as he roughly pushed her against the tree.

Zuko couldn't believe his luck, of all people to be out in the middle of the night, the Waterbender was. He felt her back hit the tree harder than he anticipated, but she never said anything. Didn't show it her eyes or features. He pressed himself against her to tie the rope around her, but was distracted when her small breasts brushed against his chest. He didn't understand what happened to him in that moment. He'd been with other women before. Emotionally and sexually, but just this one touch affected more than he thought was possible.

Once she was tied securely to the tree Zuko pulled out the one thing that would ultimately get her to talk. The woman's necklace. "So, Waterbender, tell me, where's the avatar? I know that you and that oaf with the boomerang are traveling with him and know where he would be hiding out at. The fucking coward."

Katara grew angry, "First, my name is Katara! Second, the oaf's name is Sokka. And he's my brother. So watch your mouth. Third, Aang is not a coward. If anything you're the coward. Hunting down the only hope for our world's saving. The only hope from our demise against the likes of your father! I will never say anything that will give away Aang's position." she turned her head away from Zuko, although she wanted nothing more than to stare into his scared, golden eyes for hours.

The Exiled snickered, "I wouldn't be so sure about that Katara," he spat her name out as though it left a bad taste in his mouth. Like the thought of anyone else beside himself was worthy of a name. He began walking around her, circling her like a predator does with its prey.

"Hah, I'm quite certain that I won't ever say anyth-" Katara's vow was cut short. In front of her eyes, Zuko dangled the one thing she cherished above all else. Her mother's necklace. "Give that to me, you filthy pig!" she began to struggle against her bonds.

Zuko clicked his tongues, "Tsk, tsk, Ms. Katara, and here I thought you were more levelheaded than that. Just a dirty mouth, such a feisty attitude. It's kind of sexy." he continued to wave the necklace in her face.

Katara released a rage filled scream, "Give it to me!"

The Fire Prince snuck up real close to her ear and whispering, sent chills all across her back, "No."

"Prince Zuko, we want the scroll before we go to find the bald one." the prince turned to find the captain of the pirates standing before a crew of more pirates.

Zuko stood straight, "You either bring the boy to me now or I destroy your precious scroll. Understand?" Zuko's voice took on a new pitch. Much angrier than it had been before when he was talking to her.

The captain nodded stiffly and left. Trying to regain his composure, Zuko turned back to…Katara. Such a beautiful name for the blue eyed goddess. "Are you sure you don't want to say anything?"

She spat in his face, with all the hate she'd felt toward him at that instant. "Fuck off, Prince Zuko."

§¨©ª

Sokka had begun rustling in his sleep. Unable to stop moving. The feeling that wrongness was amiss them was overwhelming. He shot up in his sleeping bag, incapable of dealing with the uncomfortable feeling.

He rubbed his head, warding away an oncoming headache. "Hey, Aang, Katara, are you guys awake?" he threw a rock at Aang's sleeping bag and poked Katara's.

Aang bolted up, "What? What? Who did it? Who's there?" he had his staff in hand and was swinging it wildly, like a madman.

All Sokka could do was laugh at the hilarity of the Avatar, "Aang, calm down, I just wanted to see if you were awake and okay. Something feels off about tonight. Katara?" he poked the sleeping bag of his sister's again. Nothing moved, "Katara?" he stood up and pulled the sleeping bag. His sister was missing. "Aang, where's Katara?"

The Avatar stood from his sleeping bag as well, searching for the Waterbender he had grown quite fond of over the past days. "Ah, ye children, ye lookin' fer the girl?" Sokka and Aang turned abruptly and saw the pirates. The captain laughed something wicked, "Ye are coming with us now. There's a certain prince that's on the search fer ye heads."

The boys looked to each other for advice on the situation. Neither knew what to do. They were captured by the pirates they had tried so hard to avoid.

§¨©ª

Sokka and Aang were being pushed forward. They still hadn't seen where Katara was, not until they looked ahead of them and saw her tied to a tree surrounded by Firebenders. Aang looked to Sokka, unsure of what to do.

But Sokka, always thinking, had an idea that would get them all out of here, "So, Zuko wants us, is that right? And you're going to trade us for what? A scroll? Do you know who this kid is? Do you know how much this kid is worth to the Fire Nation?"

The captain looked the Water Tribe boy, "Tell me, child."

Sokka grinned, "This kid is the Avatar."

The pirates turned to Zuko, "The Avatar? You're right, child. He is worth more than a piece of paper. Prince Zuko, we want ten thousands gold pieces for the boy."

The Firebender looked outrage, "We had a deal, pirate."

The pirate smiled, "Deal has been broken. Money or no money?"

"No money." The pirates screamed and a battle broke out.

The boys ran amongst the fight to find Katara and free her. "Katara, what's going on here?" Sokka asked as he untied his sister and they took cover behind the trees. His eyes searched for a way to escape, instead his eyes found the scroll. He was going to regret this, but he grabbed it and slid it into his own tunic.

Fire flew around them in all directions. Screams and shouts sounded from both the pirates and the Firebenders. It was Aang who found a way to escape, "Let's take the pirates' ship!"

"That's brilliant, Aang! Come on, Sokka, let's get out of here." the trio jumped from their hiding spot and crept their way to the pirates' boat. But there was no way of getting it out of the port without making noise. "Aang, you can do it. Just Waterbend it out of the port."

The Avatar looked over to her, "No, Katara, we can do it. We can Waterbend it out of its port. Together."

She nodded and began to bend the way she taught herself. Together her and Aang moved the ship away from the dock. And further into the ocean. "We did it, Aang!" The Airbender grinned

"That's all fine and dandy, guys, and I'm happy for you, truly I am, but we do need to get out of here. Now." the three children hopped into the ship and sailed away, seemingly free.

§¨©ª

Zuko couldn't help but release a laugh that suggested irony. "Pirates, I do believe that is your ship that is sailing off."

They looked and true to claim, their ship was sailing away. In anger they took their leave and boarded Prince Zuko's smaller ship. They gave chase to the Avatar and his companions. Zuko became angry once again.

Once the pirates had gotten close enough they took station on their rightful ship. "Damn, guys, looks like we're not making it out of here without a fight." Sokka exclaimed, pulling out his sword.

The other two shifted into bending stance, "We can do this, Katara." a fight on the deck broke out. Water flew up around them, causing massive waves. Aang bent air in all directions stopping the ship as much as he could.

But that was beside the point, "Hey, Aang, Katara, we have another problem. It seems to me we are coming on a waterfall. And fast." they both turned around to see if it were true. And true it was. "Can you guys can use Waterbending to stop it?"

Aang shook his head, "I don't think so, Sokka." he was right of course, the front end their ship was falling over the waterfall. Aang did the only thing he thought of, he blew his bison whistle. Nothing happened.

"Aang, didn't we already tell you that the thing is useful!" Sokka yelled angrily as the rest of the ship fell over the waterfall. It felt as though their stomachs had reached their throats and had planned on staying there.

Katara let out a fierce yell. Thinking this was the end, she regretted what happened with Zuko. She really wanted to know what all the strange feelings meant and why she was feeling them. The water was getting closer to their free falling bodies. Just as she felt the cool breeze from the ocean she landed in something hard with an oof.

"What happened?" she asked, confused.

"APPA!" she heard Aang's yell and realized that they were sitting in Appa's saddle.

"Katara, before I forget, I'm sure you're going to want this." Sokka pulled out the Waterbending scroll and handed it to his sister. She smiled broadly and hugged her brother.

"Thank you, Sokka!" She laughed with joy and the boys joined her. They were victorious.

§¨©ª

"Zuko, you are not going to believe what I just found in my sleeve!" Iroh grinned widely as he pulled the White Lotus tile that had caused this whole mess.

Though, Zuko couldn't really say he was particularly angry with him, if he hadn't made them come back. He wouldn't have had that amazing experiment with the Waterbender, erm, Katara. But still, just to ensure that Iroh wouldn't think funny of his no anger attitude, he grabbed the tile from his uncle's hand and threw it into the ocean.

"No, Uncle, you HAD it up your sleeve the whole time. Now it's in the ocean where it will be staying. Get on the ship. We're leaving." Zuko stomped to his newly paid for ship with Iroh moping behind him.


End file.
